The Evolution of Chinese/Mandarin as a Second Language Acquisition: A Scientometric Analysis Using CiteSpace and VOSviewer Based on Web of Science Literature (1994–2024)

Authors

  • Yale Wu Universiti Sains Malaysia
  • Malini Ganapathy Universiti Sains Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1506.31

Keywords:

CSLA, SLA, L2 Mandarin, CiteSpace, VOSviewer

Abstract

With the growing international influence of China and the increasing interest in Chinese/Mandarin as a second language acquisition (CSLA), there is a notable absence of scoping reviews in this field. This paper presents a scientometric analysis of 746 documents published between 1994 and 2024, aiming to provide insights into the overall development trends of CSLA research. Using CiteSpace and VOSviewer for document visualization, the analysis examines authors’ institutions co-occurrence, keywords co-occurrence, and the strongest citation bursts to highlight the key research hotspots, emerging frontiers, and persistent challenges in CSLA research. By offering a comprehensive analysis, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the global trends and thematic developments in CSLA, and provides a clear perspective on CSLA research evolution over the past three decades.

Author Biographies

Yale Wu, Universiti Sains Malaysia

School of Languages, Literacies and Translation

Malini Ganapathy, Universiti Sains Malaysia

School of Languages, Literacies and Translation

References

Al-Hoorie, A. H. (2017). Sixty years of language motivation research. SAGE Open, 7(1), 1-11.

Baker, Colin. (1992). Attitudes and Language. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Best, C. T. (1995). “A direct realist view of cross-language speech perception,” in Speech Perception and Linguistic Experience: Issues in Cross-Language Research, edited by W. Strange (York, Timonium, MD), pp. 171–204.

Best, C. T., and Tyler, M. D. (2007). “Nonnative and second-language speech perception: Commonalities and complementarities,” in Language Experience in Second Language Speech Learning: In honor of James Emil Flege (John Benjamins, Amsterdam), p. 1334.

British Council. (2024). Mandarin Excellence programme for schools in England. Retrieved November, 21st, 2024. From: https://www.britishcouncil.org/school-resources/languages/mandarin-excellence-programme.

Bryfonski, L., & Ma, X. (2020). Effects of implicit versus explicit corrective feedback on mandarin tone acquisition in a SCMC learning environment. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 42(1), 61-88.

Bukar, U. A., Sayeed, M. S., Razak, S. F. A., Yogarayan, S., Amodu, O. A., & Mahmood, R. A. R. (2023). A method for analyzing text using VOSviewer. MethodsX, 11, 102339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2023.102339

Corder, S. P. (1974). Error analysis. The Edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistics, vol.3: Techniques in Applied Linguistics. London: Oxford University Press.

Chan, J., Woore, R., Molway, L., & Mutton, T. (2022). Learning and teaching Chinese as a foreign language: A scoping review. Review of Education, 10(3), 1-35.

Chen, C. (2006). CiteSpace II: Detecting and visualizing emerging trends and transient patterns in scientific literature. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 57, 359-377.

Chen, C. (2016). CiteSpace: A practical guide for mapping scientific literature. New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers.

Chen, C. (2017). Expert review. Science mapping: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Data and Information Science, 2(2), 1-40.

Chung, S. C., Chen, X., & Geva, E. (2019). Deconstructing and reconstructing cross-language transfer in bilingual reading development: An interactive framework. Journal of neurolinguistics, 50, 149-161.

Dörnyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2011). Teaching and researching motivation (2nd ed.). Longman.

Dewey, Dan P., R. Kirk Belnap & Patrick Steffen. (2018). Anxiety: Stress, foreign language classroom anxiety, and enjoyment during study abroad in Amman, Jordan. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 38, 140–161.

Dragojevic, M., Fasoli, F., Cramer, J., & Rakić, T. (2021). Toward a century of language attitudes research: Looking back and moving forward. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 40(1), 60-79.

Fang, Y., Yin, J., & Wu, B. (2018). Climate change and tourism: A scientometric analysis using CiteSpace. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 26(1), 108-126.

Garrett, Peter. (2010). Attitudes to Language. Key Topics in Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gass, S. M., Behney, J., & Plonsky, L. (2020). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course (5th ed.). New York: Routledge.

Gu, M. & Cheung, S. P. (2016). Ideal L2 Self, Acculturation, and Chinese Language Learning among South Asian Students in Hong Kong: A Structural Equation Modelling Analysis. System, (1), 14-24.

Gong, Y., Chen, M., & An, Z. (2024). Examining the impact of foreign language anxiety and language contact on oral proficiency: a study of Chinese as a second language learners. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2023-0328

González-Riaño, X. A., Fernández-Costales, A., Lapresta-Rey, C., & Huguet, Á. (2017). Language attitudes towards Spanish and Catalan in autochthonous and immigrant families in Catalonia: analysing the correlation between student attitudes and their parents. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(6), 754–767.

Han, Y. (2020). Study on Chinese Pronunciation of International Students of French. PR Magazine, 08, 55-56.

Hao, Y. (2018). Second language perception of Mandarin vowels and tones. Language and Speech, 61(1), 135-152.

Hao, Y. (2023). Phonolexical processing of Mandarin segments and tones by English speakers at different Mandarin proficiency levels. Second Language Research, 40(3), 533-557.

Hu, B. (2018). Manual for teaching and learning Chinese as a foreign language. New York: Routledge.

Lado R. (1957). Linguistics across Cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Li, Y. (2019). Mapping-knowledge-domain Analysis on International Chinese Education Research. Theory and Practice of Education, 39(18), 6-9 (In Chinese).

Li, S. (2014). The interface between feedback type, L2 proficiency, and the nature of the linguistic target. Language Teaching Research, 18(3), 373-396.

Ma, X., Gong, Y., Gao, X., & Xiang, Y. (2017). The teaching of Chinese as a second or foreign language: A systematic review of the literature 2005-2015. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38(9), 815-830.

Macaro, E., Graham, S. & Woore, R. (2016). Improving foreign language teaching: towards a research-based curriculum and pedagogy. London and New York: Routledge.

Markscheffel, B., & Schröter, F. (2021). Comparison of two science mapping tools based on software technical evaluation and bibliometric case studies. Collnet Journal of Scientometrics and Information Management, 15(2), 365–396.

MacIntyre, P. D., Gardner, R. C. (1994). "The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language". Language Learning, 44(2), 283–305.

Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (MOE, 2022). Retrieved November, 16th, 2024. From: http://www.moe.gov.cn/fbh/live/2022/54618/mtbd/202206/t20220629_641889.html

Neal, R. (2018). Investigating the intelligibility of Anglophone young beginner learners of Mandarin Chinese. In F., Diamantidaki, P. Lin, & K. Carruthers (Eds.), Mandarin Chinese teacher education: issues and solutions (pp. 128-141). London: UCL IOE Press.

Neal, R. (2020). Knocking tones off their perch: investigating the intelligibility of Anglophone beginner learners of Mandarin Chinese at two secondary schools in the North of England (Doctoral dissertation, University of Cambridge).

Neal, R. (2022). How do L1 Chinese listeners process the L2 Chinese speech signal at the sentence level with respect to accentedness, comprehensibility and intelligibility? Chinese as a Second Language Research, 11(2), 233-288.

Neal, R. (2025). Intelligibility, Tones and Young Beginner Learners of Mandarin Chinese. Taylor & Francis.

Pei, Z. & Wei, K. (2021). A longitudinal study on Chinese university students' attitudes toward English accents of the Belt and Road countries. Foreign Language World, (02), 63-71.

Perkins, D. N., & Salomon, G. (1992). Transfer of learning. International encyclopedia of education, 2, 6452-6457.

Saito, K., Dewaele, J-M., Abe, M., & In’nami, Y. (2018). Motivation, emotion, learning experience, and second language comprehensibility development in classroom settings: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study. Language Learning, 68(3), 709-743.

Shen, H. (2018). Chinese as a second language reading: Lexical access and text comprehension. In C. Ke (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of Chinese second language acquisition (pp. 134-150). Routledge.

Su, X., Li, X., & Kang, Y. (2019). A bibliometric analysis of research on intangible cultural heritage using CiteSpace. Sage Open, 9(2), 1-18.

UCL. (2024). Mandarin excellence programme. Retrieved November, 16th, 2024. From: https://ci.ioe.ac.uk/mandarin-excellence-programme/

Wong, Y. K., Lau, K. L., & Lee, I. (2024). Young Chinese language learners’ L2 motivational self-system and learning achievement in Chinese literacy acquisition. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 1-17.

Xu, Q. & Peng, H. (2017). Investigating mobile-assisted oral feedback in teaching Chinese as a second language. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 30(3-4), 173-182.

Xu, W., Wang, Y., & Case, R. E. (2010). Chinese attitudes towards varieties of English: A pre-Olympic examination. Language Awareness, 19(4), 249-260.

Yang, C. (2016). The acquisition of L2 Mandarin prosody. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Yang, C. (Ed.). (2021). The acquisition of Chinese as a Second Language pronunciation: Segments and prosody. Springer.

Yang, C. & Chan, M. (2010). The perception of Mandarin Chinese tones and intonation by American learners. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, 49(1), 117-145.

Yang, C., Chu, J., Chen, S., & Xu, Y. (2021). Effects of segments, intonation and rhythm on the perception of l2 accentedness and comprehensibility. The Acquisition of Chinese as a Second Language Pronunciation: Segments and Prosody, 233-255.

Yu, B. (2010). Learning Chinese abroad: The role of language attitudes and motivation in the adaptation of international students in China. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 31(3), 301-321.

Zhang, H. (2016). Dissimilation in the second language acquisition of Mandarin Chinese tones. Second Language Research, 32(3), 427-452.

Zhang, H., & Roberts, L. (2019). The role of phonological awareness and phonetic radical awareness in acquiring Chinese literacy skills in learners of Chinese as a second language. System, 81, 163-178.

Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: a psycholinguistic grain size theory. Psychological bulletin, 131(1), 3-29.

Downloads

Published

2025-06-01

Issue

Section

Articles