CiteSpace-Based Bibliometric Analysis of Cross-Cultural Oral Communication Research in China

Abstract

Against the backdrop of globalization and educational internationalization, cross-cultural oral communication (COC) has become a core competency for intercultural interactions, yet its assessment practices remain fragmented and under-systematized in China, lacking standardized frameworks and rigorous empirical validation. To address this gap and map research hotspots and assessment practice trends, this study employed CiteSpace 6.3.R1 to conduct bibliometric analyses on 302 relevant publications retrieved from the CNKI database (2000–2025). Core findings reveal that key research hotspots include oral communication teaching, communicative competence, rubrics, intercultural communicative competence (ICC), industry-education integration, and smart classroom applications. Assessment practices have evolved from single linguistic skill testing to multidimensional evaluation integrating culture, strategy, and technology, with core research clustering around instructional assessment models, pragmatic competence rubrics, and technology-integrated performance assessment. Notably, current research is dominated by conceptual studies, with insufficient empirical validation of standardized rubrics and inadequate attention to affective dimensions. This study systematically visualizes the intellectual structure of China's COC research, enriches the theoretical link between COC and assessment discourse, provides actionable guidance for standardized and culturally sensitive assessment design, and lays a foundation for advancing empirical research on COC assessment instruments.