A Bibliometric Analysis on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) via VOSviewer and CiteSpace

Abstract

Drawing on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), this review aimed to clarify the research status and identify the research hotspots in this field using bibliometric software. Two hundred eighty-seven journal articles from the SSCI and SCI databases in WoS were imported into VOSviewer and CiteSpace to examine the number, period, authors, journals, organizations, and keywords, in order to achieve the above goals. The major findings demonstrated that, from 2009 to 2023, CLIL remained a primary phase of progress, with relatively few authors, organizations, and their collaborations on this topic. Keywords with high occurrences showed a focus on themes such as teaching effectiveness and the classroom, contributing to the discovery of research hotspots. Implications may include potential suggestions, such as focusing on the effects of early education, emphasizing learner individual characteristics about the application of CLIL, innovating new methodologies suitable for this field, and drawing contrasts between CLIL and other teaching methods.