Visual analysis of international research on foreign language teaching materials: a CiteSpace-based study (2003–2023)

Purpose This study investigate sresearch publications related to foreign language teaching materials indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) database from 2003 to 2023 to map the knowledge structure of international research on foreign language teaching materials.Design/methodology/approach Using bibliometric methods and CiteSpace software, the researcher conducts a visual analysis of the overall research profile, frontiers, and trends through the publication output, keyword co-occurrence network, journal co-citation, and literature co-citation.Findings and Originality/value Analysis revealed a non-linear yet generally increasing tendency in global research on foreign language teaching materials over the past two decades. The field has evolved through both theoretical exploration and empirical investigation. Core research themes have consistently centered on the interplay between teaching materials and pedagogy, the design, evaluation, and use of teaching materials, the role of teaching materials in teacher education and professional development, the emergence and influence of digital teaching materials, linguistic and cultural content analysis within teaching materials, and the exploration of ideological and global competence embedded in teaching materials, which reflects the interdisciplinary and multiperspective nature of the field. Emerging research trends include cultural representations, gender-language or gender-visual relationships, global awareness or national identity in teaching materials, the use of teaching materials, the connection between teaching materials and teacher development, and the evolution of digital teaching materials.