Twenty years’development of translanguaging: a bibliometric analysis

Translanguaging in applied linguistics and foreign language pedagogy has attracted scholars’ attention and interest in recent years. Myriad theoretical and empirical research on translanguaging has been conducted. However, little comprehensive science mapping exists in this field. Hence, the present study aimed to examine the academic output in translanguaging from a bibliometric perspective. Specifically, annual scientific production, cited documents, sources, authors & affiliations & countries, keywords and research trends, and conceptual structure were analyzed based on the Web of Science, and specific future directions were predicted. The findings underscore that: (1) The study of translanguaging has developed rapidly in the past 20 years, displaying an overall upward trend. (2) Five research groups in translanguaging can be identified: the United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa, Spain, and China. (3) The research topic of translanguaging is concentrated in applied linguistics and foreign language pedagogy. (4) The relevant artificial intelligence technologies (e.g. biblioshiny) can be widely applied in terms of their potential to facilitate the field of translanguaging.