해외 English for Academic Purposes (EAP) 연구 동향의 계량서지학적 분석

A bibliometric analysis of global research trends in English for academic purposes (EAP)

This study aims to explore global research trends in the field of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) through a bibliometric analysis of publications indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) database. A total of 206 articles were analyzed to identify prolific authors, the most cited journals and documents, key contributing countries, and thematic structures within the domain. The analysis revealed a steady increase in EAP-related research since the early 2000s, with significant contributions from both English-speaking and non-English-speaking countries. Notably, China, the United States, Spain, Iran, and New Zealand emerged as the most active contributors, reflecting growing research engagement in both English-speaking and non- English-speaking regions. Co-occurrence network analysis of author keywords led to the identification of five distinct thematic clusters: (1) corpus-based studies on academic writing and vocabulary, (2) discourse and metadiscourse analysis in ESP/EAP contexts, (3) frequencybased academic vocabulary research, (4) genre and move structure analysis in EFL university writing, and (5) needs-based EAP/ESP instruction and course design. These clusters reflect a diversification of research topics, ranging from linguistic features of academic texts to instructional practices tailored to learners’ needs in higher education. This study contributes to a systematic understanding of the intellectual landscape of EAP research and provides insights for future directions in both academic research and pedagogical practices.