Power Dynamics in Language Classrooms: A Bibliometric Review and Its Implications for Education

The relationship of language and power has been studied from various perspectives. Since different forms of power exist in the classroom, especially in the language classroom setting, educators or stake holders are facing even more challenges. To make a relatively systematic description and analysis on this subject, this study adopts a quantitative approach to conduct the review using CiteSpace software 5.8 R3, with the support of which we can visualize the information collected from Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Arts and Humanity Citation Index (AHCI). The findings indicate that the high-yield countries studied in this field include the United States, England and Canada which are also countries of significant number of immigrants. Besides, and hot research topics include applying critical discourse analysis and critical literacy in the language classroom, enhancing the research of power in language education, and constructing learners’ identity in language classroom.