1 Introduction

The internationalization of higher education and the construction of "Double First Class" have driven the growth of demand for academic English research and teaching. The "Guidelines for College English Teaching (2020 Edition)" emphasizes the establishment of academic English courses, guided by practical use of English, to cultivate students' English application ability and academic literacy. Academic English (EAP) is an important branch of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Domestic scholars have proposed a transition from General English to Academic English to meet the demands of foreign languages in the new era, construct an academic discourse system with Chinese characteristics, and enhance international academic discourse power. Existing research is mostly based on quantitative statistics, lacking an overview of international EAP research theories and methods. This article summarizes international EAP research from 2000 to 2022 through bibliometric and manual annotation methods, aiming to help domestic scholars understand the forefront and dynamics of international EAP research, promote EAP teaching, advance the construction of academic discourse system in foreign language disciplines and the internationalization of Chinese academia, and enhance international discourse power.

2 Research questions and methods

Through quantitative and qualitative analysis methods, this study explores the distribution of publications, main research countries (regions) and institutions, main authors, research hotspots and cutting-edge topics, as well as research methods and theoretical characteristics of international EAP research in the past two decades. The data is sourced from SSCI source journals in the WOS database, covering the period from 2000 to 2022, with a total of 1433 valid data articles obtained. The study first counted the publication year, country (region), institution, and main authors of the paper, and then used CiteSpace software to draw keyword knowledge maps and citation space maps for cluster analysis, summarizing research hotspots and cutting-edge topics. Finally, manual statistics were conducted on the research methods and theoretical foundations of all research papers, and the main research methods and theoretical foundations of international EAP research were sorted out.

3 Results and Discussion

International EAP research has shown a fluctuating growth trend since 2000, with over 50 articles published annually after 2011 and over 100 articles published in 2019 and beyond. The United States leads the world in the number of EAP research publications, followed closely by China. The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Spain, and New Zealand are also major research countries. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China holds a major position in the field of EAP research. The main authors of the article include Hyland, Jiang Feng, etc. The research involves academic discourse interactivity, disciplinary attributes, and academic meta discourse analysis frameworks.

4 Conclusion

We analyzed EAP research papers in international SSCI journals from 2000 to 2022 using CiteSpace software and manual annotation, revealing the growth trend of research, major contributing countries and institutions, core authors, research methods, theoretical foundations, hotspots, and cutting-edge topics. Research has found that EAP research presents diverse and multifaceted characteristics, with hotspots focused on academic discourse, journal articles, EAP teaching, and other areas. Further research is needed in EAP reading, oral discourse, multimodal EAP discourse, and other fields. Future research should adopt multiple perspectives and methods, combined with domestic characteristics, to enhance the influence of Chinese scholars in international EAP research.