A Bibliometric Analysis of Written Corrective Feedback in Second Language Writing

Written corrective feedback is a hot topic in the field of L2 writing and second language acquisition. Citespace, one of the bibliometric analysis software, was used to investigate the number of publications, productive authors, influential journals and institutions, major themes, and research trends of written corrective feedback in L2 writing from 2014 to 2024. This study employed WoS core collection as a data source for selecting relevant articles. The results showed the finalized 321 eligible articles, two influential authors, Yu Shulin and Lee Icy, two leading journals, Assessing writing and Journal of second language writing, the leading institution, University of Macau. Meanwhile, the findings of this research revealed that the major research themes were students' engagement, factors that influenced students' engagement, theoretical foundations underpinning written corrective feedback, teachers' written corrective feedback practices, and factors that impact their implementation of feedback, students' perception, and motivation. Future research might continue to investigate students’ agentic engagement and teachers’ role in written corrective feedback research, which could better understand written corrective feedback and adjust teachers’ implementation of feedback.