Tendency of English Teaching Based on Content-Based Instruction in China

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to serve as guidance to academics that are starting or currently developing their research within the field of content-based instruction in China. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis on content-based instruction, making use of the National Knowledge Infrastructure database to perform it. The identified articles were analyzed concerning year of publication, citations, topics keywords and authors. This analysis comprises fundamental issues such as (i) the number of studies published per year, (ii) the most cited studies on content-based instruction between 2010 and 2018, (iii) the most frequent words used in the title of Content-based instruction studies in China, and (iv) assessment of studies citing content-based instruction. Results reveal a growth in the number of publications on content-based instruction for the 2010–2014 period. Although, since 2014 this growth has decelerated, the number of publications on this topic remains noteworthy. This study brings tendency of CBI in China for those academics and practitioners attempting to analyze and deepen within this particular field of research. At the same time it provides some insights concerning the future development and progress of content-based instruction in the English teaching.