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Review article, studies of teaching and learning english-speaking skills: a review and bibliometric analysis.

• School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

This study conducted a comprehensive historical review and bibliometric analysis of the literature on English-speaking (ES) education and mapped the current state of the field, trends, and emerging topics, as well as identified gaps where further research is needed. We retrieved 361 sample documents on ES teaching and learning in Scopus (2010–2021) under certain conditions and analyzed the extracted data using Excel and VOSviewer 1.6.17 from the perspectives of the number of yearly publications, countries, authors, citation numbers, and keywords. The findings show that the number of publications on ES education increased from 2010 to 2021, but there was a lack of sustained engagement with this topic by researchers. Countries with an ESL or EFL context focused more on the subject of ES, although studies from native ES countries were more influential. The research topics showed a multidimensional trend, covering communicative skills, language knowledge, assessment, teaching or learning methods, ICT-related applications, and cognitive factors, of which ICT-related applications (such as flipped classrooms, blended learning, and e-learning) and cognitive factors (such as motivation, anxiety, and affect) were the areas of focus. Students in higher institutions, rather than children, became the main research subject of ES education over the period studied.

Introduction

A considerable amount of time and money has been invested in English language education (ELE) around the world, especially in countries where English is a Foreign (EFL) or Second Language (ESL). For example, ELE in East Asian countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan has been identified as a necessary skill, which has motivated the development of various approaches and policies ( Song, 2011 ; Hu and McKay, 2012 ). There have been at least three phases of English curriculum reforms by the Malaysian Ministry of Education directed toward improving students’ English proficiency and teachers’ professional development (TPD) ( Rashid et al., 2017 ; Kummin et al., 2020 ).

Despite unremitting efforts in many countries, ELE is still facing the problem of low average English skills. For example, students’ English skills in Turkey are not as good as expected ( Coskun, 2016 ; Özmen et al., 2016 ; Umunĉ and Raw, 2017 ). The survey by Wei and Su (2015) clearly showed that the subjects’ ES proficiency was generally low.

Many terms have been used to refer to the speaking aspects of the English language, e.g., “oral English,” “spoken English,” or “English speaking.” “English speaking” is the term used in this article. Speaking is different from writing, although both are productive skills, in that it is “transient, unplanned, context-dependent, oral/aural, and dynamic” ( Hughes, 2017 ). English-speaking (ES) has been treated as an indivisible language skill for learners in the language education fields of TESOL, EFL, and ESL.

How to improve ES ability, including teaching and learning approaches, influencing factors, and other related issues, have always been a focus of researchers. Thus, in view of the profound changes in society, politics, economics, and technologies, this article aims to give an overview of the current situation and trends regarding ES studies based on Scopus from 2010 to 2021. Moreover, it seeks to provide useful information for further ES teaching and learning research through visualized data analysis using VOSviewer 1.6.17 and Micro Excel.

Thus, the research questions (RQs) of this article are as follows:

RQ1. What is the bibliometric information regarding publications about ES teaching and learning in Scopus (2010–2021), including the number of yearly publications, authors, citations, country contributions, and keywords?

RQ2. What is the status of ES teaching and learning?

RQ3. What are the most influential authors in the field of ES teaching and learning?

RQ4. What are the trends in ES teaching and learning?

RQ5. What are the gaps in ES teaching and learning from the bibliometric information?

Materials and Methods

Bibliometric analysis refers to the cross-science of quantitative analysis of all carriers of knowledge by means of mathematics and statistics ( Broadus, 1987 ). The development of bibliometric software such as VOSviewer, Citespace, and Gephi, and the foundation of the big databases for academic documents such as Scopus, Web of Science, and Taylor and Francis make bibliometric analysis more feasible and practical ( Donthu et al., 2021 ). Meanwhile, according to Rogers et al. (2020) , the recommended minimum sample size for a bibliometric analysis is 200 entries.

Article Selection and Identification

Scopus was chosen as the database for this historical review and bibliometric analysis of ES education. This is because Scopus, as one of the world’s largest databases, covers a wide range of academic journals, conference proceedings, books, and other related publications with relatively high citation indexes and quality, much like the Web of Science ( Pham et al., 2018 ; Baas et al., 2020 ). Scopus is user-friendly in the sense that information can be conveniently retrieved through string retrieval. This study replicated the methodologies used by Lázaro (2022) and Kaya and Erbay (2020) . This article was conducted around RQs after the identification of some keywords as conditions for data mining.

Thus, 23,633 sample documents were first strictly extracted under the condition [TITLE-ABS-KEY (“English speaking” OR “English-speaking” OR “oral English” OR “spoken English”)] AND (“TESOL” OR “EFL” OR “ESL”). Then, the conditions of time span and document type were added for filtering from 2010 to 2021. Then, the articles, conference papers, reviews, book chapters, and books were chosen as the target document types. The detailed conditions can be seen in Table 1 .

Table 1. Retrieval conditions.

Finally, 1,893 documents were obtained. These were exported in the form of an Excel document with citation information, bibliographic information, abstract and keywords, funding details, and other information.

After strict data cleaning through thematic analysis of the abstracts by three researchers for more than three times, 361 sample documents remained, which were classified into four types of documents: journal articles (256; 70.91%), conference papers (79; 21.88%), book chapters (16; 4.43%), and reviews (10; 2.77%), covering more than 10 subject areas, such as social sciences, computer sciences, medicine, engineering, and arts and humanities.

Research Framework and Instruments

In the data selection step, sample documents were screened for information about authors, titles, years, citations, author keywords, index keywords, publishers, document types, countries, and author affiliations from Scopus under strict conditions. The sample documents were then uploaded to Excel and VOSviewer 1.6.17 during the data-processing step. Excel and VOSviewer 1.6.17 were used to perform the visualized bibliometric analysis of the number of publications per year, contributions of authors and countries, and keywords ( Chen, 2016 ; Van Eck and Waltman, 2017 ). Finally, the current situation, developing trends, research gaps, and lessons we can learn about ES teaching were sorted. Thus, the research framework is divided into four main steps, as shown in Figure 1 .

Figure 1. The conceptual framework.

Compared with studies on English writing and reading, studies on ES education are relatively very small in scale. Although only 361 sample documents conforming to the screening conditions were identified, it was still feasible to conduct a bibliometric analysis from the perspectives of the number of yearly publications, countries, authors, citations, and keywords.

Number of Publications by Year

According to the linear trend line in Figure 2 , the overall trend of the ES education literature in Scopus was on the rise from 2010 to 2021. The number of publications in 2021 was six times more than that in 2010, indicating that ES education was gradually beginning to be taken seriously by researchers.

Figure 2. Yearly publications on English-speaking teaching and learning (2010–2021).

However, there were some tortuous changes. In 2010, only 10 studies were identified, but the percentage of the high citation index occupied 50%. From 2011 to 2018, the number of documents published in this area presented an up-and-down curve. The number of publications was slightly lower in 2012 than in 2021. This might be due to the decreased demand for ES education as a result of the economic downturn in many emerging economies such as China, South Korea, and Brazil ( Reid, 2013 ). Yearly publications in this field increased from 2012 to 2013, but decreased again from 2013 to 2015, which was again in line with the global economic situation ( Mau and Ulyukaev, 2015 ). In 2015, the number of publications was more or less the same as in 2010. The reasons for this might be that world trade reduced during the global crisis from 2014 to 2015 ( Baber, 2015 ; Xu and Carey, 2015 ) or that no new research directions were explored during that time. After 2015, there was a continuous increase until 2017. After a subtle decrease in 2018, there was a significant accumulation in the number of publications from 2018 to 2021, showing a new growth trend. Especially in 2020 and 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought disaster to the whole world, publications on ES education increased, reflecting the increasing requirement for ES communication during this time of global cooperation ( Sun and Lan, 2021 ). The influence of the date on the extraction of the sample documents was not very great, as it was 12 December 2021.

Contributions and Collaborations by Country/Region

The 361 sample records extracted in Scopus from 2010 to 2021 were associated with around 40 countries, showing the global distribution of interest by country in ES education.

Figure 3 shows the top 20 countries/regions publishing articles in this field, and they were responsible for 344 ES education publications (2010–2021) (accounting for 95.29% of the total). The countries with big and bright circles were the ones with the large number of the publications. Apart from the 75 publications contributed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Spain, and New Zealand, the remaining 269 publications were published by 10 Asian countries, accounting for 74.52% of the total sample documents, which implied the huge demand for the improvement of the learners’ ES skills in those countries. Mainland China contributed 128 publications, accounting for 40.44% of the total, followed by the United States, with 38 documents, accounting for 10.53%.

Figure 3. Density map of the top 10 countries.

Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, countries in South-East Asia, occupied the third, fourth, and fifth positions, with 22, 22, and 18 publications, respectively. Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Bangladesh began to participate in country collaborations in recent years, in contrast to countries such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Singapore where English is the native language or first language.

The citation network in Figure 4 shows only countries with more than five publications, which reflected the passive collaboration among the countries. As one of the native ES countries, home to many ELE approaches and English assessment tools such as TOFEL, the publications by the United States were cited 518 times (total link strength = 10). Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, home to IELTS, contributed 12 publications, which were cited 72 times (total link strength = 5). Malaysia, where ESL, contributed 22 publications, which were cited 90 times (total link strength = 17). Meanwhile, China, with an EFL context, ranked second with 128 publications, which were cited 395 times, and the total link strength achieved 24.

Figure 4. Country co-authorship in the field of English speaking teaching and learning.

The total citation number of the 361 sample publications was 1,828. Table 2 provides detailed information on the 15 countries that published the most cited articles. The publication and the corresponding citation rate of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore showed huge contrasts, respectively, 12.92, 19.45, 19.5, and 13.83. The high citation rate may to a certain extent represent a high reference value, although it may also be influenced by some highly cited papers ( Schubert and Braun, 1986 ; Aksnes et al., 2012 ; Brika et al., 2021 ). Thus, it was concluded that the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, where English was the official language, were the leading countries with high citation rates in the field of ES education studies. Similarly, native ES countries—the United Kingdom and Canada—showed relatively high citation rates of 5.83 and 6.14, respectively. Meanwhile, the citation rates of Asian countries such as China (4.73), Japan (6.35), South Korea (5.08), Vietnam (8.38), and Oman (6.75) indicated the progress and the relatively high reference value of publications on ES education studies in those countries. The non-ES European countries such as Spain received 4.57 in citation rates, which were much lower than those of the native ES countries.

Table 2. Description of the 15 countries that published the most cited articles in the field of English-speaking (ES) education studies in Scopus (2010–2021).

Co-authorship among the countries is shown in Figure 5 , which is a presentation of active collaborations. The co-authorship links among Malaysia, India, China, and the United States were linear. However, the collaboration in the map showed a tendency toward a partial focus. For instance, the United States was the main collaborating country for Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. While China collaborated mainly with the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Turkey, Vietnam, and New Zealand. Thus, there was a need for an omnidirectional and multi-angle collaboration among the countries for ES teaching and learning research across the world for further studies.

Figure 5. The map of the co-authorship among the countries on English-speaking teaching and learning.

Author Contributions

Table 3 shows general information about the citations for the 361 sample documents in Scopus (2010–2021). As can be seen in Table 4 , the topics of the top 10 most frequently cited articles were concerned with the assessment of ES proficiency and fluency, teachers’ influence, lexical acquisition, and the facilitation of mobile social networks. The total citation number was 1,828. On average, each document was cited 5.06 times. An experimental study by Kang et al. (2010) that proposed suprasegmental measurement for pronunciation assessment from the perspective of accent and equipment use was the most frequently cited article, which was cited 134 times. A qualitative study by Ma (2012) was cited 66 times, ranking second among the top 10 most frequently cited. It focused on ES teaching methods and investigated the advantages and disadvantages of native and non-native ES teachers in practice. The third most frequently cited article, which analyzed the academic lexical demands and academic word list coverage for ES communications by means of corpus, was cited 61 times ( Dang and Webb, 2014 ). Obviously, most of the top 10 most frequently cited articles were published before 2016, except for the experimental studies by Sun and Lan (2021) on the application of e-learning to develop young learners’ ES competence, implying the emergence of new research topics after 2016 in ES teaching and learning studies.

Table 3. General citations of English-speaking (ES) education publications in Scopus (2010–2021).

Table 4. Top 10 frequently cited authors on English-speaking (ES) education in Scopus (2010–2021).

The top 10 authors with more than three articles in order, were Ismail, K. (6), Abdullah, M. Y. (5), Hussin, S. (5), Liu, M. (5), Habil, H. (4), Chen, Z. (3), Hasan, M. K. (3), Hwang, G. J. (3), Rao, Z. (3), and Seraj, P. M. I. (4), and the co-authorship relationships can be seen in Figure 6 . Seraj, P. M. I published four articles (one in 2020 and three in 2021) focusing on the topic of a flipped classroom. The other author with four publications was Liu M., studying the problem of Chinese EFL students’ anxiety, respectively, in 2013, 2018, 2018, and 2021. Rao Z. made three publications on the issues of native and non-native English teachers in China in 2010, 2016, and 2020.

Figure 6. Density map of the key words.

Keyword Analysis

There were 1,049 keywords among the 361 sample documents, and only 49 keywords (2.88%) appeared more than five times after merging synonyms and deleting extraneous words. This indicates that the number of high-frequency keywords was relatively small, which reflects the relatively extensive content of ES research in the field of language education. Table 5 lists the top 10 keywords ordered by the frequency of occurrence apart from the retrieval words, among which the frequency of “ES skill” was the highest, accounting for 3.43%. The remaining keywords with a frequency greater than 10 were “speech recognition” (32), “College English” (26), “e-learning” (22), “computer-aided instruction” (19), “learning system” (14), “native-English speaking teachers” (13), anxiety (13), “oral communication” (12), “virtual reality” (11), and “artificial intelligence” (10). Obviously, the gap in frequency among keywords is not very large.

Table 5. The top 10 most frequently occurring keywords on English-speaking (ES) education in Scopus (2010–2021).

The bibliometric co-occurrence analysis of keywords provided a convenient way to assess the state of the research field and spot hot issues ( Chen, 2016 ; Mutira et al., 2021 ; Sun and Lan, 2021 ). Meanwhile, importantly, keyword co-occurrence analysis can reflect the viewpoints of core academic articles and may be beneficial for researchers trying to keep up with research trends in a certain area ( Li et al., 2016 ; Shoaib et al., 2021 ). Figure 6 shows the density of keywords that appeared more than 10 times; the brightness of the color represents the heat color of the keyword studied. The more studies, the brighter the color ( Van Eck and Waltman, 2020 ). The colors of the keywords “English speaking skill,” “college English,” “computer-aided learning instruction,” and “speech recognition” were brighter than others. The other keywords, such as “speaking anxiety” and “e-learning,” were also brighter. To some extent, these brighter keywords reflected the research hotspots in the field of ES education from 2010 to 2021 in Scopus.

Keyword cluster analysis reflected the topics to some extent ( Yang et al., 2017 ). After combining synonyms (e.g., oral English and spoken English; computer-aided learning and computer-aided instruction; and native and non-native ES teacher) and the deletion of non-sense words (e.g., human, priority journal, and education), the keywords except the retrieval terms “English speaking,” “oral English,” “English-speaking,” “spoken English,” “EFL,” “TESOL,” and “ESL” were categorized into seven clusters with three main topics, as seen in Figure 7 . The keywords with red color dealt with the application of ICT in ES education, including items such as artificial intelligence, automatic speech recognition, computer-aided instruction, correlation methods, deep learning, information science, learning system, machine learning, quality control, correlation methods, corrective feedback, ES learning, oral communication, etc. Cluster 2 dealt with the cognitive factors influencing students’ ES skills or performance, such as attitude, EFL, English speaking performance, ES skill, the flipped classroom, motivation, speaking anxiety, and teaching methods, of which flipped classroom as a teaching method had the highest frequency of occurrence. Clusters 3 and 4 dealt with the application of ICT in college ES education, covering topics such as e-learning, engineering education, English speaking, learning, virtual reality, big data, college English, and educational computing. Cluster 7 dealt with the assessment of pronunciation or others.

Figure 7. The network visualization map of co-occurrence of keywords.

Keyword Changes and the Enlightenment to Research Topics

Figure 8 reveals a change in the time distribution of topics. It was obvious that most of the light-colored nodes were close to the keyword “college English,” while there were only a few around the keywords “child,” “preschool,” and “adolescent” after 2016. This shows that college students had become the main subjects of ES education studies instead of young learners.

Figure 8. The overlay visualization map of keywords according to year.

Meanwhile, studies with keywords related to the application of ICT, such as “big data,” “artificial intelligence,” “flipped classroom,” “speech recognition system,” and “virtual reality” in ES education, were emerging as a focus of research. Academic ES also began to attract researchers’ attention. Some researchers started to consider the development of twenty first-century skills during ES education. In addition, light-colored nodes of the keywords concerning teaching and learning modes (“continuous development,” “teaching method,” “EMI,” “error correction,” etc.), cognitive factors (“students’ interests,” “anxiety,” “motivation,” etc.), language skills (“ES performance,” “communicative skills,” “accuracy,” “fluency,” etc.), and language knowledge (“pronunciation,” “grammar,” etc.) remained the focus of research.

Limitations

The interpretation of the review should be very cautious due to some limitations. First, bibliometric analysis is a literature review method based on big data technology rather than synthesized thematic analysis. The data were collected and analyzed through the software. Thus, the accuracy of this analysis method is highly dependent on that of the software. The second limitation refers to the database. Though Scopus has covered the majority of the publications on ES teaching and learning worldwide, there are still some publications that were not included in the research.

This historical review and bibliometric analysis sought to better understand the current state of the research field, trends, and emerging research topics on ES education from 2010 to 2021. The results show that there was an increasing trend in the number of publications in this area from 2010 to 2021 in Scopus, indicating that ES education studies remained a necessary research topic, although the research population was not large. Countries with an ESL or EFL context, such as China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia, paid more attention to the development of learners’ ES abilities and contributed more to ES education studies. However, the citation analysis revealed that native ES countries such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Canada, were the major authorities or origins of ES education studies, which can also be seen by author contributions. Country collaboration analysis showed that the United States, China, India, and Malaysia acted as hubs of contact, establishing overall relationships within the collaboration network. In addition, the analysis of author distribution and collaboration revealed that there were constantly new researchers entering this field, but the lack of authors focusing on ES education over the long term and sustained research was still a problem. Further exploration of keywords revealed that the hot research issues encompass communicative skills, language knowledge, assessment, teaching or learning methods, ICT-related applications, and cognitive factors. Rather than focusing on ES education for young and adolescent learners, researchers showed a preference for investigating ES education for college students, catering to the increasing requirements of oral international communication. Meanwhile, topics on ICT application, autonomous learning, academic ES ability, and twenty first-century learning skills are gradually becoming hot areas for the improvement of ES teaching and learning worldwide.

JW was the research designer and executor of this study, participated in and completed the data analysis, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. RA and L-ML gave suggestions when necessary. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

JW would like to express their gratitude to RA and L-ML who participated in this project.

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Keywords : English-speaking skills, bibliometric analysis, research trends, enlightenment, research state

Citation: Wang J, Abdullah R and Leong L-M (2022) Studies of Teaching and Learning English-Speaking Skills: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis. Front. Educ. 7:880990. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2022.880990

Received: 22 February 2022; Accepted: 01 June 2022; Published: 06 July 2022.

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Copyright © 2022 Wang, Abdullah and Leong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Rohaya Abdullah, [email protected]

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This article presents a comprehensive review of communicative language teaching (CLT) in language education, considering both the positive impact of the approach and the criticisms raised by scholars. CLT has garnered significant attention in language education due to its emphasis on promoting effective communication and meaningful language use. This systematic review presents an impartial and well-rounded analysis of the pros and cons of CLT, citing previous studies in the literature review. It highlights the positive results of past research, demonstrating how CLT can enhance students’ communicative competence, language proficiency, cultural awareness, learner autonomy, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. However, other studies have criticized CLT, raising concerns about its lack of explicit grammar and vocabulary instruction, insufficient preparation for formal writing, standardized exams, insufficient attention to individual learner differences, and emphasis on fluency over accuracy. By presenting both perspectives, this article aims to provide educators with a balanced understanding of CLT’s potential strengths and limitations, guiding them in designing effective language teaching practices.

Introduction

The field of language teaching has experienced the creation and growth of diverse approaches over the course of its historical progression. Several approaches and methods have gained recognition in the English Language Teaching (ELT) community, including the Grammar Translation Method, the Direct Method, the Audio-lingual Method, Suggestopedia, and Total Physical Response. These approaches or methods have undergone thorough examination and study by researchers and scholars. Every approach or method demonstrates specific areas of emphasis, weaknesses, and strengths, all solidly grounded in clearly defined theoretical frameworks. These approaches are frequently developed by integrating theoretical paradigms such as behaviourism, structuralism, constructivism, and universal grammar.

In this scholarly investigation, we embark on an examination of CLT, a pedagogical methodology that is subject to the same rigorous investigation as its precursors. CLT gives much value to meaning since communication is the ultimate goal of second language acquisition ( Magnan, 2007 ). This approach is also referred to as the notional functional strategy. It was established by the European Council in the 1970s, building on the work of language experts such as Wilkins, who analyzed the communicative meanings that a learner needs to express and understand. Instead of the traditional system of teaching grammar, he focused on meaning. For further illustration, the core idea behind CLT is that language instruction should not only focus on teaching grammar and vocabulary but also include the study of the meanings and functions of utterances in a variety of authentic contexts.

CLT is a combination of various language concepts, including sociolinguistics, functional linguistics, semantics, and pragmatics. Through the CLT approach, learners are encouraged to develop their communicative competence by using the language in meaningful and real-life situations. This approach emphasizes the importance of fluency over accuracy, making it a popular choice for language instruction in many contexts. The CLT approach, which originated in Britain, has been widely adopted in English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) classrooms worldwide ( Liao & Zhao, 2012 ; Ozsevik, 2010 ). This global acceptance has been extensively documented by Ellis (1996) . The aforementioned approach holds a crucial position within the domain of English language teaching (ELT), receiving acknowledgement from both linguists and language educators due to its pedagogical merit.

Methodology

Research problem.

To what extent does the implementation of communicative language teaching (CLT) in English language teaching (ELT) contexts contribute to the development of students’ language proficiency and effective communication skills, and what challenges and limitations may arise in balancing its benefits and potential drawbacks?

This research problem seeks to explore the dual nature of CLT in ELT by investigating its positive influence on language proficiency and communication skills development while also examining the challenges and limitations it may pose in terms of ensuring accuracy and addressing potential shortcomings in explicit language instruction. Understanding the overall impact of CLT on ELT will provide valuable insights for educators and policymakers seeking to optimize language teaching methods and curricula.

Research Objectives

This academic paper aims to clarify the principles and practices of the CLT approach, offering a thorough comprehension of its theoretical underpinnings and outlining its main distinguishing features. Moreover, our objective is to analyze the key benefits and constraints linked to the adoption of this instructional approach. This study serves as a vital contribution to the ongoing academic conversation on language instruction approaches, providing insightful perspectives on the dynamic nature of language education.

Research Questions

How does the implementation of communicative language teaching (CLT) in English language teaching (ELT) contexts affect the development of students’ communication skills and overall language proficiency, considering its merits as a student-centered approach?

What challenges and limitations arise in the application of communicative language teaching (CLT) in English language teaching (ELT), particularly in terms of accuracy and potential issues related to neglecting explicit language instruction?

Data Extraction

A thorough and organized method was used to collect data in order to do a full review of all the past and present studies that looked at the pros and cons of using CLT to teach English. A comprehensive literature review of scholarly papers, journal articles, research reports, and dissertations from reputable databases and academic repositories was conducted. To assure relevance and currency, we will concentrate on studies published between 1972 and 2023, with particular emphasis on studies from the last five decades.

The studies selected for analysis were carefully vetted based on their relevance and methodological rigor. Key findings about the pros and cons of using CLT in ELT were found by extracting data. These findings focused on things like student-centered learning, improving communication skills, implementation challenges, and possible limits in teaching language accuracy. By synthesizing the insights from these studies, a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of CLT in ELT was achieved. This way of collecting data made it possible for a fair and fact-based evaluation of CLT, which showed its good points and areas that might need more work.

The communicative language teaching approach has garnered significant attention in language education due to its stress on improving effective communication and meaningful language use. The results below provide a balanced analysis of the merits and demerits of CLT, drawing insights from past studies mentioned in the literature review.

Merits of CLT

Enhanced communicative competence and language proficiency.

Richards and Rodgers (2001) highlight that the CLT approach has prioritized real-life communication as a means of developing language competencies in authentic contexts. Evidence also shows that engaging students in communication tasks and activities allows students to fine-tune their ability to transmit and interpret messages proficiently, thereby enhancing their communicative competence ( Krashen, 1981 ). This approach has underscored oral communication and active engagement, helping students cultivate an advanced level of fluency and precision in language use. In this respect, once students practice the language, especially in meaningful contexts, their language proficiency is profoundly improved ( Savignon, 1972 ).

Additionally, Chaudhury (2015) conducted a study that is in accordance with the principles of CLT. This approach focuses on the improvement of communicative competence and language proficiency. The author sought to establish an interactive learning environment wherein students could actively participate in real-life communication scenarios by implementing communicative language activities, as opposed to the conventional ‘chalk and talk’ approach. The above-mentioned technique is compatible with the fundamental objective of CLT, which is to impart language learning that is both meaningful and practical. The use of a quasi-experimental, non-randomized pre-test and post-test control group design enhances the study by providing a research-supported framework for assessing the true effects of communicative language activities on learners’ communicative competence over a period of time. The results indicating a substantial disparity in post-test scores provide robust evidence for the efficacy of CLT-focused approaches in improving language proficiency and communicative competence. These findings highlight the impact of Chaudhury ’s (2015) research in advocating for the implementation of communicative language teaching methods in language education.

Fostering Learner Autonomy and Motivation

Ellis (1999) posits that the CLT approach, grounded on the idea of learner-centeredness, endeavours to facilitate students’ autonomy in assuming responsibility for their language acquisition process. Previous research has substantiated the assertion that CLT is a pedagogical technique that fosters the active participation of students, encouraging them to become engaged, creative, and self-directed learners ( Long, 1996 ; Snider & Schnurer, 2002 ). In this regard, the CLT approach facilitates the development of learner autonomy by affording students increased control and responsibility in their learning process.

In order to accomplish this objective, CLT offers students opportunities to engage in authentic communicative tasks, including but not limited to role plays, debates, dialogues, and puzzles. The primary objective of these exercises is to enhance students’ opportunities for verbal expression while concurrently reducing the teacher’s talking time. Furthermore, when students participate in these activities, whether in pairs or groups, working together towards a common goal, they assume complete responsibility for their own educational development ( Benson, 2011 ; Little, 1991 ).

Development of Cultural Competence

The CLT approach is widely recognized for its effectiveness in fostering cultural competence among language learners. This approach cultivates intercultural communication and understanding, as pointed out by Nunan (1991) , and encourages learners to engage with authentic language materials from diverse cultural contexts. When students interact with their peers from different backgrounds, they develop sensitivity and awareness of different cultures, leading to a deeper understanding of the language and its cultural implications.

Research has shown that CLT enables learners to communicate more effectively in multicultural settings by understanding and respecting different cultural norms and practices ( Byram, 1997 ; Kramsch, 1993 ). This approach’s emphasis on authentic material and peer interaction facilitates cultural immersion and provides occasions for learners to experience different cultures firsthand. Besides, the CLT approach encourages learners to use the language in its natural context, leading to a more inclusive understanding of the language’s cultural implications.

The connection of Arroussi (2014) with the concepts of communicative language teaching in relation to the promotion of cultural competency underscores the need to include culture in language instruction. The fact that the researcher saw that culture had a big effect on improving communication skills is in line with the basic ideas of CLT, which stress how important it is to use language in real, appropriate situations. From Arroussi’s point of view, language learners’ success in communication situations depends on how well they understand and value culture. This highlights the close connection between learning a language and communicating culturally. The above alignment accentuates the need to integrate cultural components into language instruction approaches, cultivating a more profound grasp of the desired language and boosting learners’ ability to communicate effectively.

The experimental study conducted by Hua (2011) presents persuasive evidence in favour of the relationship between the implementation of CLT and the development of cultural competence. The results of the study stress the efficacy of integrating cultural education into an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course, as it led to a notable enhancement in students’ cultural consciousness and ability to communicate effectively ( Wu, 2008 ). This is in perfect agreement with the concepts of CLT, which prioritize the incorporation of authentic cultural contexts into language acquisition in order to improve learners’ proficiency in varied communication settings. Hua’s (2011) study provides evidence that being exposed to and comprehending diverse cultures not only increases students’ cultural awareness but also improves their communication skills, which is an ultimate principle of CLT ( Lee et al ., 2023 ). These findings offer significant support for the incorporation of cultural components into language instruction, which is consistent with the comprehensive approach to language acquisition advocated by CLT. This approach aims to equip students with the necessary skills to engage in meaningful and successful cross-cultural conversation.

Enhancing Critical Thinking and Problem-solving Skills

According to a study by Hasibuan and Batubara (2012) , the CLT approach is effective in improving learners’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The approach involves the use of communicative tasks that require learners to negotiate meaning in various contexts. By engaging in these tasks, learners are encouraged to think critically while communicating, leading to the development of cognitive abilities that extend beyond just language learning. Additionally, CLT promotes critical thinking about language itself, which can help students gain a deeper understanding of the nuances and implications of the language they are using.

Furthermore, the development of critical thinking skills and oral communication proficiency is widely recognized as a fundamental necessity in the context of 21st-century education. Numerous studies have been conducted to examine several methodologies and techniques aimed at enhancing critical thinking and oral communication abilities within the classroom setting ( Halpern, 2003 ). Existing literature provides evidence that the incorporation of communicative language teaching practices, such as in-class debates, discussions, public-speaking exercises, and role-play activities, enhances an atmosphere conducive to understanding, introspection, inquiry, negotiation, and logical evaluation. Conversely, the implementation of critical thinking exercises in language education can help in the development of oral competency skills.

Demerits of CLT

Neglect of explicit grammar and vocabulary instruction.

One of the primary criticisms directed at the communicative language teaching approach is its alleged neglect of explicit grammar and vocabulary instruction ( Larsen-Freeman, 2000 ; Spada & Lightbown, 2008 ). Nassaji (2000) stresses the importance of integrating form-focused activities within an integrative approach to L2 teaching that balances meaning with form. The author argues that an overemphasis on meaning, as seen in traditional communicative language teaching, can affect learners negatively if they neglect the language structure. Consequently, to ensure the development of proficient language learners, form-focused activities should be incorporated within a communicative and meaningful context. The article provides various pedagogical strategies, such as the use of corrective feedback, explicit instruction, and consciousness-raising tasks, to help learners develop their form-focused abilities. These strategies aim to enhance learners’ capacity to notice and analyze the form of language, leading to greater accuracy and fluency in language production.

Likewise, in his work, Grim (2008) places much emphasis on the significance of form, particularly for beginning-level learners and cultural lessons. The author argues that integrating language structures into cultural lessons at the early stages of French L2 classes can be more effective for learning second language grammar, vocabulary, and cultural content in intermediate French L2 classes. Grim’s approach departs from traditional communicative language teaching, which gives much more value to meaning than form. Instead, Grim contends that giving equal importance to form and meaning can boost language learning outcomes.

El-Dakhs (2015) argues that without systematic and explicit instruction, students may struggle to develop a solid foundation in language structure and vocabulary knowledge. This limitation may hinder learners’ ability to produce accurate and grammatically correct language. For example, the author’s critique of communicative language teaching addresses significant language accuracy issues. CLT stresses meaning and communication, while El-Dakhs’ research shows the risks of emphasizing meaning alone in language training. This view is supported by research that suggests pure CLT learners may lack linguistic accuracy, a key component of language mastery ( Ahmad & Rao, 2013 ). El-Dakhs’ criticism focuses on the necessity for a balanced approach to language development that includes communicative competency and formal teaching. Recognizing the importance of language accuracy allows educators to take a more holistic approach that ensures students communicate successfully and have the grammatical and linguistic precision needed for language competency. This perspective enhances CLT discourse by highlighting its benefits and weaknesses in language instruction.

Limited Preparation for Formal Writing and Standardized Exams

According to Bachman (1990) , some researchers express concerns that the CLT approach may not provide students with sufficient preparation for formal writing and standardized exams that require precise grammar and vocabulary usage. While CLT’s major focus on communicative activities is critical for effective communication, it may not fully address the intricacies required for formal language production. Consequently, students may lack the necessary skills to perform well in language assessment contexts that demand precise grammar and vocabulary usage. Furthermore, some sceptics argue against implementing CLT, as exemplified by Norland and Pruett-Said (2006) . These critics express apprehension regarding the potential neglect of reading and writing abilities within the framework of CLT. They elucidate that if educators fail to instruct grammatical regulations or vocabulary, learners may ultimately experience difficulty expressing themselves clearly and effectively throughout interpersonal exchanges. Finally, a limitation of communicative language teaching is its applicability mainly to small class sizes. In the context of a large classroom, teachers may allocate an important amount of time towards assessing the language proficiency of individual students and rectifying any errors they may have made ( Wilkins, 1976 ).

Prioritization of Fluency over Accuracy

While fluency is an essential component in language production, it is important to maintain a balance between fluency and accuracy. The Communicative Language Teaching approach accentuates fluency, which may contribute to the development of fossilized errors if accuracy-focused activities are neglected ( Ellis, 2003 ). These errors could become ingrained and difficult to correct, which can negatively impact language learning. Thus, it is crucial to include accuracy-focused activities in language learning to ensure that learners are not only fluent but also accurate in their language production. Striking a balance between fluency and accuracy can help learners develop a well-rounded and effective communication skill set.

Similarly, according to Brumfit and Johnson’s (1979) publication, the communicative approach to language learning, which gives emphasis to the ability to communicate effectively in a language, should not be prioritized to the detriment of language accuracy. The authors suggest that a balanced approach that incorporates both communicative competence and language accuracy is essential to achieving optimal language learning outcomes. This implies that a singular focus on communicative competence may not suffice to equip learners with the necessary language skills required for effective communication in real-life situations. As such, educators and language learners alike must strive to achieve a balance between the two approaches in order to maximize language learning outcomes.

In addition, Gerges’ (2016) research regarding the potential weakness of CLT brings attention to an essential aspect of language education. Although this approach is highly effective in improving oral fluency and communicative competence, it is essential to recognize that language proficiency encompasses more than just speaking abilities. The findings of Gerges draw attention to the significance of maintaining a balanced approach in the training of language. By placing exclusive emphasis on oral fluency, there is a possibility of unintended repercussions, including a potential decrease in the development of grammar skills and writing proficiency. This underscores the imperative for an all-inclusive strategy that incorporates both fluency and accuracy in language use.

Over the years, the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach has become increasingly popular in language education. This approach emphasizes the importance of promoting effective communication and meaningful language use in the classroom. This discussion aims to provide a broader analysis of both the merits and drawbacks of CLT, drawing upon relevant findings from the literature review mentioned above.

Research Question 1

Enhancing communication skills.

One of the main advantages of CLT is its rigorous emphasis on honing students’ communication proficiencies. This approach encourages learners to apply language skills in real-life scenarios, enabling them to develop effective communication abilities across diverse contexts. This pedagogical approach fits well with modern theories about how people learn languages, like Krashen’s Input Hypothesis ( Krashen, 1981 ), which says that people learn languages best when they are exposed to input that is just a little bit above their current level of proficiency. This helps them communicate meaningfully.

Promoting Student-centered Learning

Another advantage of CLT is that it promotes student-centered learning. In a CLT classroom, the teacher acts as a facilitator who guides and supports student interactions. This approach encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning, making it more engaging and motivating for them. For instance, Long’s Interaction Hypothesis ( Long, 1996 ) complements CLT by underscoring that interaction and negotiation of meaning during language use promote language acquisition, echoing the fundamental concept in CLT of student-centred, communicative learning. Savignon’s Communicative Competence Theory ( Tarone, 1983 ) further supports CLT’s objectives by highlighting the importance of teaching language within real-life contexts, a core principle of CLT. Additionally, Hasibuan and Batubara (2012) agree with CLT’s principles, confirming that this approach allows learners to develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills as they collaborate with their peers. These results show that CLT goes hand in hand with language acquisition theory, making it clear that it is a way to teach that focuses on building good communication skills.

Research Question 2

Difficulties in implementation.

Nevertheless, CLT is not without its limitations. One of the main criticisms of this approach is that it can be difficult to implement in practice. For instance, it can be challenging for teachers to design and manage activities that meet the diverse needs of their students. While the acceptance of CLT is widespread among educators in English-speaking nations in the Western hemisphere, its adoption in Asia and non-native English countries is not as prevalent. According to Kustati (2013) , the efficacy of the strategy in Southeast Asian nations such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Malaysia is limited. The degree of success observed in these nations is constrained and subject to variation based on the specific country and socio-cultural circumstances. Similarly, Koosha and Yakhabi (2013) highlight that EFL instructors encounter problems and challenges while attempting to implement the CLT approach and optimize the learning experience in their classrooms.

Neglecting Language Accuracy

Some research suggests potential drawbacks. For example, Spada and Lightbown’s study (2008) indicates that explicit instruction, especially in grammar, can be beneficial alongside CLT. This raises questions about whether CLT, which primarily focuses on communication, might neglect the role of explicit language instruction, potentially hindering learners’ language development.

To address this criticism, language learning programmes could incorporate explicit grammar and vocabulary instruction into their curriculum. Explicit instruction can help learners develop a solid foundation in language structure and vocabulary knowledge, which is essential for effective communication. According to Canale and Swain (1980) , linguistic and communicative competence is an essential aspect of language instruction and acquisition, particularly in the context of ESL/EFL education. The authors further elaborate that communicative competence is predicated upon the interplay between grammatical competence and knowledge, as well as socio-linguistic competence and knowledge. In order to facilitate effective communication, it is essential to possess knowledge of the appropriate content, delivery, and timing of one’s message.

In 1985, Swain put forward the Output Hypothesis, which disagrees with the receptive approach of CLT and supports active language production. This displays how significant it is to include language production activities in the CLT framework. Moreover, Nation and Newton (2009) accentuate the significance of vocabulary instruction alongside communicative activities, pointing out a potential gap in CLT’s focus on vocabulary acquisition. These criticisms reveal that CLT may need to strike a better balance between communication-centred teaching and addressing these potential limitations. To avoid such negative consequences, it is crucial to incorporate accuracy-focused activities into language learning programmes.

In short, the study of communicative language teaching (CLT) demonstrates that it fits with current theories of how people learn languages because it focuses on real communication, interaction with others, and real-life situations. The efficacy of this pedagogical technique has been demonstrated in its ability to enhance learners’ communication abilities and promote a student-centered learning environment. However, it is critical to acknowledge potential constraints, such as the requirement for explicit instruction in language, the necessity for active production of language, and the acquisition of vocabulary. These factors have the potential to affect the overall effectiveness of language learning within the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) framework.

In summary, the discourse surrounding communicative language teaching features its prominence and pertinence within the realm of language education. The CLT approach, which is based on learner-centeredness and meaningful dialogue, presents a number of benefits. This approach promotes active participation from students, facilitates the application of language in authentic contexts, and improves their ability to communicate effectively in accordance with current theories of language learning. Furthermore, the implementation of the CLT approach fosters the development of student autonomy, enhances critical thinking skills, and cultivates problem-solving ability.

However, it is imperative to recognize that CLT is not devoid of constraints. The challenges encompass obstacles encountered during the implementation process, particularly in countries where English is not the local language, as well as the possibility of disregarding language accuracy and explicit instruction. Achieving a harmonious equilibrium between pedagogical approaches that stress communication and the need to acknowledge and overcome these constraints is crucial to facilitating successful language acquisition.

Implications

The implications of the findings presented in this discourse hold substantial importance for practitioners and scholars in the field of language education. Educators ought to persist in leveraging the advantages of CLT by prioritizing the promotion of meaningful conversation, interactive engagement, and the application of language skills in authentic, real-world contexts. Yet, it is imperative for educators to take into account the incorporation of explicit language instruction, engaging language production activities, and vocabulary teaching within their communicative language teaching methodologies. This approach is fundamental in order to effectively tackle any potential constraints and offer a comprehensive language learning experience for students.

Future Research

In order to augment our understanding of the efficacy of communicative language teaching and explore prospective avenues for development, it is recommended that future research endeavours concentrate on various domains:

• Comparative Studies: Conduct comparative studies to analyze the outcomes of CLT-based instruction in comparison to other language teaching methodologies. These studies aim to measure the effectiveness of CLT in various circumstances.
• Language Production Activities: Examine the effects of integrating additional language production activities inside the CLT framework. Furthermore, it seeks to explore the ideal equilibrium between the enhancement of receptive and productive language skills.
• Vocabulary Acquisition : Look into new ways to teach vocabulary within the framework of communicative language teaching. The goal is to help students build a strong vocabulary foundation along with their communication skills.
• Teacher Training: Examine the effects of offering teacher training programmes with an emphasis on CLT in order to enrich educators’ proficiency in efficiently implementing CLT methodologies.

In conclusion, it can be argued that CLT holds significant pedagogical value. However, it is crucial to emphasize the prominence of ongoing study and adaptation in order to fully optimize its advantages and effectively address any potential limitations. This approach ultimately aims to offer learners a whole language learning experience.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

Learning objectives.

At the conclusion of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Identify the purpose of the literature review in  the research process
• Distinguish between different types of literature reviews

1.1 What is a Literature Review?

Pick up nearly any book on research methods and you will find a description of a literature review.  At a basic level, the term implies a survey of factual or nonfiction books, articles, and other documents published on a particular subject.  Definitions may be similar across the disciplines, with new types and definitions continuing to emerge.  Generally speaking, a literature review is a:

• “comprehensive background of the literature within the interested topic area…” ( O’Gorman & MacIntosh, 2015, p. 31 ).
• “critical component of the research process that provides an in-depth analysis of recently published research findings in specifically identified areas of interest.” ( House, 2018, p. 109 ).
• “written document that presents a logically argued case founded on a comprehensive understanding of the current state of knowledge about a topic of study” ( Machi & McEvoy,  2012, p. 4 ).

As a foundation for knowledge advancement in every discipline, it is an important element of any research project.  At the graduate or doctoral level, the literature review is an essential feature of thesis and dissertation, as well as grant proposal writing.  That is to say, “A substantive, thorough, sophisticated literature review is a precondition for doing substantive, thorough, sophisticated research…A researcher cannot perform significant research without first understanding the literature in the field.” ( Boote & Beile, 2005, p. 3 ).  It is by this means, that a researcher demonstrates familiarity with a body of knowledge and thereby establishes credibility with a reader.  An advanced-level literature review shows how prior research is linked to a new project, summarizing and synthesizing what is known while identifying gaps in the knowledge base, facilitating theory development, closing areas where enough research already exists, and uncovering areas where more research is needed. ( Webster & Watson, 2002, p. xiii )

A graduate-level literature review is a compilation of the most significant previously published research on your topic. Unlike an annotated bibliography or a research paper you may have written as an undergraduate, your literature review will outline, evaluate and synthesize relevant research and relate those sources to your own thesis or research question. It is much more than a summary of all the related literature.

It is a type of writing that demonstrate the importance of your research by defining the main ideas and the relationship between them. A good literature review lays the foundation for the importance of your stated problem and research question.

Literature reviews:

• define a concept
• map the research terrain or scope
• systemize relationships between concepts
• identify gaps in the literature ( Rocco & Plathotnik, 2009, p. 128 )

The purpose of a literature review is to demonstrate that your research question  is meaningful. Additionally, you may review the literature of different disciplines to find deeper meaning and understanding of your topic. It is especially important to consider other disciplines when you do not find much on your topic in one discipline. You will need to search the cognate literature before claiming there is “little previous research” on your topic.

Well developed literature reviews involve numerous steps and activities. The literature review is an iterative process because you will do at least two of them: a preliminary search to learn what has been published in your area and whether there is sufficient support in the literature for moving ahead with your subject. After this first exploration, you will conduct a deeper dive into the literature to learn everything you can about the topic and its related issues.

Literature Review Tutorial

1.2 Literature Review Basics

An effective literature review must:

• Methodologically analyze and synthesize quality literature on a topic
• Provide a firm foundation to a topic or research area
• Provide a firm foundation for the selection of a research methodology
• Demonstrate that the proposed research contributes something new to the overall body of knowledge of advances the research field’s knowledge base. ( Levy & Ellis, 2006 ).

All literature reviews, whether they are qualitative, quantitative or both, will at some point:

• Introduce the topic and define its key terms
• Establish the importance of the topic
• Provide an overview of the amount of available literature and its types (for example: theoretical, statistical, speculative)
• Identify gaps in the literature
• Point out consistent finding across studies
• Arrive at a synthesis that organizes what is known about a topic
• Discusses possible implications and directions for future research

1.3 Types of Literature Reviews

There are many different types of literature reviews, however there are some shared characteristics or features.  Remember a comprehensive literature review is, at its most fundamental level, an original work based on an extensive critical examination and synthesis of the relevant literature on a topic. As a study of the research on a particular topic, it is arranged by key themes or findings, which may lead up to or link to the  research question.  In some cases, the research question will drive the type of literature review that is undertaken.

The following section includes brief descriptions of the terms used to describe different literature review types with examples of each.   The included citations are open access, Creative Commons licensed or copyright-restricted.

1.3.1 Types of Review

1.3.1.1 conceptual.

Guided by an understanding of basic issues rather than a research methodology. You are looking for key factors, concepts or variables and the presumed relationship between them. The goal of the conceptual literature review is to categorize and describe concepts relevant to your study or topic and outline a relationship between them. You will include relevant theory and empirical research.

Examples of a Conceptual Review:

• Education : The formality of learning science in everyday life: A conceptual literature review. ( Dohn, 2010 ).
• Education : Are we asking the right questions? A conceptual review of the educational development literature in higher education. ( Amundsen & Wilson, 2012 ).

1.3.1.2 Empirical

An empirical literature review collects, creates, arranges, and analyzes numeric data reflecting the frequency of themes, topics, authors and/or methods found in existing literature. Empirical literature reviews present their summaries in quantifiable terms using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Examples of an Empirical Review:

• Nursing : False-positive findings in Cochrane meta-analyses with and without application of trial sequential analysis: An empirical review. ( Imberger, Thorlund, Gluud, & Wettersley, 2016 ).
• Education : Impediments of e-learning adoption in higher learning institutions of Tanzania: An empirical review ( Mwakyusa & Mwalyagile, 2016 ).

1.3.1.3 Exploratory

Unlike a synoptic literature review, the purpose here is to provide a broad approach to the topic area. The aim is breadth rather than depth and to get a general feel for the size of the topic area. A graduate student might do an exploratory review of the literature before beginning a synoptic, or more comprehensive one.

Examples of an Exploratory Review:

• Education : University research management: An exploratory literature review. ( Schuetzenmeister, 2010 ).
• Education : An exploratory review of design principles in constructivist gaming learning environments. ( Rosario & Widmeyer, 2009 ).

1.3.1.4 Focused

A type of literature review limited to a single aspect of previous research, such as methodology. A focused literature review generally will describe the implications of choosing a particular element of past research, such as methodology in terms of data collection, analysis and interpretation.

Examples of a Focused Review:

• Nursing : Clinical inertia in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus: A focused literature review. ( Khunti, Davies, & Khunti, 2015 ).
• Education : Language awareness: Genre awareness-a focused review of the literature. ( Stainton, 1992 ).

1.3.1.5 Integrative

Critiques past research and draws overall conclusions from the body of literature at a specified point in time. Reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way. Most integrative reviews are intended to address mature topics or  emerging topics. May require the author to adopt a guiding theory, a set of competing models, or a point of view about a topic.  For more description of integrative reviews, see Whittemore & Knafl (2005).

Examples of an Integrative Review:

• Nursing : Interprofessional teamwork and collaboration between community health workers and healthcare teams: An integrative review. ( Franklin,  Bernhardt, Lopez, Long-Middleton, & Davis, 2015 ).
• Education : Exploring the gap between teacher certification and permanent employment in Ontario: An integrative literature review. ( Brock & Ryan, 2016 ).

1.3.1.6 Meta-analysis

A subset of a  systematic review, that takes findings from several studies on the same subject and analyzes them using standardized statistical procedures to pool together data. Integrates findings from a large body of quantitative findings to enhance understanding, draw conclusions, and detect patterns and relationships. Gather data from many different, independent studies that look at the same research question and assess similar outcome measures. Data is combined and re-analyzed, providing a greater statistical power than any single study alone. It’s important to note that not every systematic review includes a meta-analysis but a meta-analysis can’t exist without a systematic review of the literature.

Examples of a Meta-Analysis:

• Education : Efficacy of the cooperative learning method on mathematics achievement and attitude: A meta-analysis research. ( Capar & Tarim, 2015 ).
• Nursing : A meta-analysis of the effects of non-traditional teaching methods on the critical thinking abilities of nursing students. ( Lee, Lee, Gong, Bae, & Choi, 2016 ).
• Education : Gender differences in student attitudes toward science: A meta-analysis of the literature from 1970 to 1991. ( Weinburgh, 1995 ).

1.3.1.7 Narrative/Traditional

An overview of research on a particular topic that critiques and summarizes a body of literature. Typically broad in focus. Relevant past research is selected and synthesized into a coherent discussion. Methodologies, findings and limits of the existing body of knowledge are discussed in narrative form. Sometimes also referred to as a traditional literature review. Requires a sufficiently focused research question. The process may be subject to bias that supports the researcher’s own work.

Examples of a Narrative/Traditional Review:

• Nursing : Family carers providing support to a person dying in the home setting: A narrative literature review. ( Morris, King, Turner, & Payne, 2015 ).
• Education : Adventure education and Outward Bound: Out-of-class experiences that make a lasting difference. ( Hattie, Marsh, Neill, & Richards, 1997 ).
• Education : Good quality discussion is necessary but not sufficient in asynchronous tuition: A brief narrative review of the literature. ( Fear & Erikson-Brown, 2014 ).
• Nursing : Outcomes of physician job satisfaction: A narrative review, implications, and directions for future research. ( Williams & Skinner, 2003 ).

1.3.1.8 Realist

Aspecific type of literature review that is theory-driven and interpretative and is intended to explain the outcomes of a complex intervention program(s).

Examples of a Realist Review:

• Nursing : Lean thinking in healthcare: A realist review of the literature. ( Mazzacato, Savage, Brommels, 2010 ).
• Education : Unravelling quality culture in higher education: A realist review. ( Bendermacher, Egbrink, Wolfhagen, & Dolmans, 2017 ).

1.3.1.9 Scoping

Tend to be non-systematic and focus on breadth of coverage conducted on a topic rather than depth. Utilize a wide range of materials; may not evaluate the quality of the studies as much as count the number. One means of understanding existing literature. Aims to identify nature and extent of research; preliminary assessment of size and scope of available research on topic. May include research in progress.

Examples of a Scoping Review:

• Nursing : Organizational interventions improving access to community-based primary health care for vulnerable populations: A scoping review. ( Khanassov, Pluye, Descoteaux, Haggerty,  Russell, Gunn, & Levesque, 2016 ).
• Education : Interdisciplinary doctoral research supervision: A scoping review. ( Vanstone, Hibbert, Kinsella, McKenzie, Pitman, & Lingard, 2013 ).
• Nursing : A scoping review of the literature on the abolition of user fees in health care services in Africa. ( Ridde, & Morestin, 2011 ).

1.3.1.10 Synoptic

Unlike an exploratory review, the purpose is to provide a concise but accurate overview of all material that appears to be relevant to a chosen topic. Both content and methodological material is included. The review should aim to be both descriptive and evaluative. Summarizes previous studies while also showing how the body of literature could be extended and improved in terms of content and method by identifying gaps.

Examples of a Synoptic Review:

• Education : Theoretical framework for educational assessment: A synoptic review. ( Ghaicha, 2016 ).
• Education : School effects research: A synoptic review of past efforts and some suggestions for the future. ( Cuttance, 1981 ).

1.3.1.11 Systematic Review

A rigorous review that follows a strict methodology designed with a presupposed selection of literature reviewed.  Undertaken to clarify the state of existing research, the evidence, and possible implications that can be drawn from that.  Using comprehensive and exhaustive searching of the published and unpublished literature, searching various databases, reports, and grey literature.  Transparent and reproducible in reporting details of time frame, search and methods to minimize bias.  Must include a team of at least 2-3 and includes the critical appraisal of the literature.  For more description of systematic reviews, including links to protocols, checklists, workflow processes, and structure see “ A Young Researcher’s Guide to a Systematic Review “.

Examples of a Systematic Review:

• Education : The potentials of using cloud computing in schools: A systematic literature review ( Hartmann, Braae, Pedersen, & Khalid, 2017 )
• Nursing : Is butter back? A systematic review and meta-analysis of butter consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and total mortality. ( Pimpin, Wu, Haskelberg, Del Gobbo, & Mozaffarian, 2016 ).
• Education : The use of research to improve professional practice: a systematic review of the literature. ( Hemsley-Brown & Sharp, 2003 ).
• Nursing : Using computers to self-manage type 2 diabetes. ( Pal, Eastwood, Michie, Farmer, Barnard, Peacock, Wood, Inniss, & Murray, 2013 ).

1.3.1.12 Umbrella/Overview of Reviews

Compiles evidence from multiple systematic reviews into one document. Focuses on broad condition or problem for which there are competing interventions and highlights reviews that address those interventions and their effects. Often used in recommendations for practice.

Examples of an Umbrella/Overview Review:

• Education : Reflective practice in healthcare education: An umbrella review. ( Fragknos, 2016 ).
• Nursing : Systematic reviews of psychosocial interventions for autism: an umbrella review. ( Seida, Ospina, Karkhaneh, Hartling, Smith, & Clark, 2009 ).

For a brief discussion see “ Not all literature reviews are the same ” (Thomson, 2013).

1.4 Why do a Literature Review?

The purpose of the literature review is the same regardless of the topic or research method. It tests your own research question against what is already known about the subject.

1.4.1 First – It’s part of the whole. Omission of a literature review chapter or section in a graduate-level project represents a serious void or absence of critical element in the research process.

The outcome of your review is expected to demonstrate that you:

• can systematically explore the research in your topic area
• can read and critically analyze the literature in your discipline and then use it appropriately to advance your own work
• have sufficient knowledge in the topic to undertake further investigation

1.4.2 Second – It’s good for you!

• You improve your skills as a researcher
• You become familiar with the discourse of your discipline and learn how to be a scholar in your field
• You learn through writing your ideas and finding your voice in your subject area
• You define, redefine and clarify your research question for yourself in the process

1.4.3 Third – It’s good for your reader. Your reader expects you to have done the hard work of gathering, evaluating and synthesizes the literature.  When you do a literature review you:

• Set the context for the topic and present its significance
• Identify what’s important to know about your topic – including individual material, prior research, publications, organizations and authors.
• Demonstrate relationships among prior research
• Establish limitations of existing knowledge
• Analyze trends in the topic’s treatment and gaps in the literature

1.4.4 Why do a literature review?

• To locate gaps in the literature of your discipline
• To avoid reinventing the wheel
• To carry on where others have already been
• To identify other people working in the same field
• To increase your breadth of knowledge in your subject area
• To find the seminal works in your field
• To provide intellectual context for your own work
• To acknowledge opposing viewpoints
• To put your work in perspective
• To demonstrate you can discover and retrieve previous work in the area

1.5 Common Literature Review Errors

Graduate-level literature reviews are more than a summary of the publications you find on a topic.  As you have seen in this brief introduction, literature reviews are a very specific type of research, analysis, and writing.  We will explore these topics more in the next chapters.  Some things to keep in mind as you begin your own research and writing are ways to avoid the most common errors seen in the first attempt at a literature review.  For a quick review of some of the pitfalls and challenges a new researcher faces when he/she begins work, see “ Get Ready: Academic Writing, General Pitfalls and (oh yes) Getting Started! ”.

As you begin your own graduate-level literature review, try to avoid these common mistakes:

• Accepts another researcher’s finding as valid without evaluating methodology and data
• Contrary findings and alternative interpretations are not considered or mentioned
• Findings are not clearly related to one’s own study, or findings are too general
• Insufficient time allowed to define best search strategies and writing
• Isolated statistical results are simply reported rather than synthesizing the results
• Problems with selecting and using most relevant keywords, subject headings and descriptors
• Relies too heavily on secondary sources
• Search methods are not recorded or reported for transparency
• Summarizes rather than synthesizes articles

In conclusion, the purpose of a literature review is three-fold:

• to survey the current state of knowledge or evidence in the area of inquiry,
• to identify key authors, articles, theories, and findings in that area, and
• to identify gaps in knowledge in that research area.

A literature review is commonly done today using computerized keyword searches in online databases, often working with a trained librarian or information expert. Keywords can be combined using the Boolean operators, “and”, “or” and sometimes “not”  to narrow down or expand the search results. Once a list of articles is generated from the keyword and subject heading search, the researcher must then manually browse through each title and abstract, to determine the suitability of that article before a full-text article is obtained for the research question.

Literature reviews should be reasonably complete, and not restricted to a few journals, a few years, or a specific methodology or research design. Reviewed articles may be summarized in the form of tables, and can be further structured using organizing frameworks such as a concept matrix.

A well-conducted literature review should indicate whether the initial research questions have already been addressed in the literature, whether there are newer or more interesting research questions available, and whether the original research questions should be modified or changed in light of findings of the literature review.

The review can also provide some intuitions or potential answers to the questions of interest and/or help identify theories that have previously been used to address similar questions and may provide evidence to inform policy or decision-making. ( Bhattacherjee, 2012 ).

Read Abstract 1.  Refer to Types of Literature Reviews.  What type of literature review do you think this study is and why?  See the Answer Key for the correct response.

Nursing : To describe evidence of international literature on the safe care of the hospitalised child after the World Alliance for Patient Safety and list contributions of the general theoretical framework of patient safety for paediatric nursing.

An integrative literature review between 2004 and 2015 using the databases PubMed, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Scopus, Web of Science and Wiley Online Library, and the descriptors Safety or Patient safety, Hospitalised child, Paediatric nursing, and Nursing care.

Thirty-two articles were analysed, most of which were from North American, with a descriptive approach. The quality of the recorded information in the medical records, the use of checklists, and the training of health workers contribute to safe care in paediatric nursing and improve the medication process and partnerships with parents.

General information available on patient safety should be incorporated in paediatric nursing care. ( Wegner, Silva, Peres, Bandeira, Frantz, Botene, & Predebon, 2017 ).

Read Abstract 2.  Refer to Types of Literature Reviews.  What type of lit review do you think this study is and why?  See the Answer Key for the correct response.

Education : The focus of this paper centers around timing associated with early childhood education programs and interventions using meta-analytic methods. At any given assessment age, a child’s current age equals starting age, plus duration of program, plus years since program ended. Variability in assessment ages across the studies should enable everyone to identify the separate effects of all three time-related components. The project is a meta-analysis of evaluation studies of early childhood education programs conducted in the United States and its territories between 1960 and 2007. The population of interest is children enrolled in early childhood education programs between the ages of 0 and 5 and their control-group counterparts. Since the data come from a meta-analysis, the population for this study is drawn from many different studies with diverse samples. Given the preliminary nature of their analysis, the authors cannot offer conclusions at this point. ( Duncan, Leak, Li, Magnuson, Schindler, & Yoshikawa, 2011 ).

Test Yourself

See Answer Key for the correct responses.

The purpose of a graduate-level literature review is to summarize in as many words as possible everything that is known about my topic.

A literature review is significant because in the process of doing one, the researcher learns to read and critically assess the literature of a discipline and then uses it appropriately to advance his/her own research.

Read the following abstract and choose the correct type of literature review it represents.

Nursing: E-cigarette use has become increasingly popular, especially among the young. Its long-term influence upon health is unknown. Aim of this review has been to present the current state of knowledge about the impact of e-cigarette use on health, with an emphasis on Central and Eastern Europe. During the preparation of this narrative review, the literature on e-cigarettes available within the network PubMed was retrieved and examined. In the final review, 64 research papers were included. We specifically assessed the construction and operation of the e-cigarette as well as the chemical composition of the e-liquid; the impact that vapor arising from the use of e-cigarette explored in experimental models in vitro; and short-term effects of use of e-cigarettes on users’ health. Among the substances inhaled by the e-smoker, there are several harmful products, such as: formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acroleine, propanal, nicotine, acetone, o-methyl-benzaldehyde, carcinogenic nitrosamines. Results from experimental animal studies indicate the negative impact of e-cigarette exposure on test models, such as ascytotoxicity, oxidative stress, inflammation, airway hyper reactivity, airway remodeling, mucin production, apoptosis, and emphysematous changes. The short-term impact of e-cigarettes on human health has been studied mostly in experimental setting. Available evidence shows that the use of e-cigarettes may result in acute lung function responses (e.g., increase in impedance, peripheral airway flow resistance) and induce oxidative stress. Based on the current available evidence, e-cigarette use is associated with harmful biologic responses, although it may be less harmful than traditional cigarettes. (J ankowski, Brożek, Lawson, Skoczyński, & Zejda, 2017 ).

• Meta-analysis
• Exploratory

Education: In this review, Mary Vorsino writes that she is interested in keeping the potential influences of women pragmatists of Dewey’s day in mind while presenting modern feminist re readings of Dewey. She wishes to construct a narrowly-focused and succinct literature review of thinkers who have donned a feminist lens to analyze Dewey’s approaches to education, learning, and democracy and to employ Dewey’s works in theorizing on gender and education and on gender in society. This article first explores Dewey as both an ally and a problematic figure in feminist literature and then investigates the broader sphere of feminist pragmatism and two central themes within it: (1) valuing diversity, and diverse experiences; and (2) problematizing fixed truths. ( Vorsino, 2015 ).

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Literature Reviews for Education and Nursing Graduate Students Copyright © by Linda Frederiksen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• Open access
• Published: 05 December 2023

A scoping review to identify and organize literature trends of bias research within medical student and resident education

• Brianne E. Lewis 1 &
• Akshata R. Naik 2  

BMC Medical Education volume  23 , Article number:  919 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Physician bias refers to the unconscious negative perceptions that physicians have of patients or their conditions. Medical schools and residency programs often incorporate training to reduce biases among their trainees. In order to assess trends and organize available literature, we conducted a scoping review with a goal to categorize different biases that are studied within medical student (MS), resident (Res) and mixed populations (MS and Res). We also characterized these studies based on their research goal as either documenting evidence of bias (EOB), bias intervention (BI) or both. These findings will provide data which can be used to identify gaps and inform future work across these criteria.

Online databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, WebofScience) were searched for articles published between 1980 and 2021. All references were imported into Covidence for independent screening against inclusion criteria. Conflicts were resolved by deliberation. Studies were sorted by goal: ‘evidence of bias’ and/or ‘bias intervention’, and by population (MS or Res or mixed) andinto descriptive categories of bias.

Of the initial 806 unique papers identified, a total of 139 articles fit the inclusion criteria for data extraction. The included studies were sorted into 11 categories of bias and showed that bias against race/ethnicity, specific diseases/conditions, and weight were the most researched topics. Of the studies included, there was a higher ratio of EOB:BI studies at the MS level. While at the Res level, a lower ratio of EOB:BI was found.

Conclusions

This study will be of interest to institutions, program directors and medical educators who wish to specifically address a category of bias and identify where there is a dearth of research. This study also underscores the need to introduce bias interventions at the MS level.

Peer Review reports

Physician bias ultimately impacts patient care by eroding the physician–patient relationship [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. To overcome this issue, certain states require physicians to report a varying number of hours of implicit bias training as part of their recurring licensing requirement [ 5 , 6 ]. Research efforts on the influence of implicit bias on clinical decision-making gained traction after the “Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care” report published in 2003 [ 7 ]. This report sparked a conversation about the impact of bias against women, people of color, and other marginalized groups within healthcare. Bias from a healthcare provider has been shown to affect provider-patient communication and may also influence treatment decisions [ 8 , 9 ]. Nevertheless, opportunities within medical education curriculum are created to evaluate biases at an earlier stage of physician-training and provide instruction to intervene them [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. We aimed to identify trends and organize literature on bias training provided during medical school and residency programs since the meaning of ‘bias’ is broad and encompasses several types of attitudes and predispositions [ 13 ].

Several reviews, narrative or systematic in nature, have been published in the field of bias research in medicine and healthcare [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Many of these reviews have a broad focus on implicit bias and they often fail to define the patient’s specific attributes- such as age, weight, disease, or condition against which physicians hold their biases. However, two recently published reviews categorized implicit biases into various descriptive characteristics albeit with research goals different than this study [ 17 , 18 ]. The study by Fitzgerald et al. reviewed literature focused on bias among physicians and nurses to highlight its role in healthcare disparities [ 17 ]. While the study by Gonzalez et al. focused on bias curricular interventions across professions related to social determinants of health such as education, law, medicine and social work [ 18 ]. Our research goal was to identify the various bias characteristics that are studied within medical student and/or resident populations and categorize them. Further, we were interested in whether biases were merely identified or if they were intervened. To address these deficits in the field and provide clarity, we utilized a scoping review approach to categorize the literature based on a) the bias addressed and b) the study goal within medical students (MS), residents (Res) and a mixed population (MS and Res).

To date no literature review has organized bias research by specific categories held solely by medical trainees (medical students and/or residents) and quantified intervention studies. We did not perform a quality assessment or outcome evaluation of the bias intervention strategies, as it was not the goal of this work and is standard with a scoping review methodology [ 19 , 20 ]. By generating a comprehensive list of bias categories researched among medical trainee population, we highlight areas of opportunity for future implicit bias research specifically within the undergraduate and graduate medical education curriculum. We anticipate that the results from this scoping review will be useful for educators, administrators, and stakeholders seeking to implement active programs or workshops that intervene specific biases in pre-clinical medical education and prepare physicians-in-training for patient encounters. Additionally, behavioral scientists who seek to support clinicians, and develop debiasing theories [ 21 ] and models may also find our results informative.

We conducted an exhaustive and focused scoping review and followed the methodological framework for scoping reviews as previously described in the literature [ 20 , 22 ]. This study aligned with the four goals of a scoping review [ 20 ]. We followed the first five out of the six steps outlined by Arksey and O’Malley’s to ensure our review’s validity 1) identifying the research question 2) identifying relevant studies 3) selecting the studies 4) charting the data and 5) collating, summarizing and reporting the results [ 22 ]. We did not follow the optional sixth step of undertaking consultation with key stakeholders as it was not needed to address our research question it [ 23 ]. Furthermore, we used Covidence systematic review software (Veritas Health Innovation, Melbourne, Australia) that aided in managing steps 2–5 presented above.

Research question, search strategy and inclusion criteria

The purpose of this study was to identify trends in bias research at the medical school and residency level. Prior to conducting our literature search we developed our research question and detailed the inclusion criteria, and generated the search syntax with the assistance from a medical librarian. Search syntax was adjusted to the requirements of the database. We searched PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO using MeSH terms shown below.

Bias* [ti] OR prejudice*[ti] OR racism[ti] OR homophobia[ti] OR mistreatment[ti] OR sexism[ti] OR ageism[ti]) AND (prejudice [mh] OR "Bias"[Mesh:NoExp]) AND (Education, Medical [mh] OR Schools, Medical [mh] OR students, medical [mh] OR Internship and Residency [mh] OR “undergraduate medical education” OR “graduate medical education” OR “medical resident” OR “medical residents” OR “medical residency” OR “medical residencies” OR “medical schools” OR “medical school” OR “medical students” OR “medical student”) AND (curriculum [mh] OR program evaluation [mh] OR program development [mh] OR language* OR teaching OR material* OR instruction* OR train* OR program* OR curricul* OR workshop*

Our inclusion criteria incorporated studies which were either original research articles, or review articles that synthesized new data. We excluded publications that were not peer-reviewed or supported with data such as narrative reviews, opinion pieces, editorials, perspectives and commentaries. We included studies outside of the U.S. since the purpose of this work was to generate a comprehensive list of biases. Physicians, regardless of their country of origin, can hold biases against specific patient attributes [ 17 ]. Furthermore, physicians may practice in a different country than where they trained [ 24 ]. Manuscripts were included if they were published in the English language for which full-texts were available. Since the goal of this scoping review was to assess trends, we accepted studies published from 1980–2021.

Our inclusion criteria also considered the goal and the population of the study. We defined the study goal as either that documented evidence of bias or a program directed bias intervention. Evidence of bias (EOB) had to originate from the medical trainee regarding a patient attribute. Bias intervention (BI) studies involved strategies to counter biases such as activities, workshops, seminars or curricular innovations. The population studied had to include medical students (MS) or residents (Res) or mixed. We defined the study population as ‘mixed’ when it consisted of both MS and Res. Studies conducted on other healthcare professionals were included if MS or Res were also studied. Our search criteria excluded studies that documented bias against medical professionals (students, residents and clinicians) either by patients, medical schools, healthcare administrators or others, and was focused on studies where the biases were solely held by medical trainees (MS and Res).

Data extraction and analysis

Following the initial database search, references were downloaded and bulk uploaded into Covidence and duplicates were removed. After the initial screening of title and abstracts, full-texts were reviewed. Authors independently completed title and abstract screening, and full text reviews. Any conflicts at the stage of abstract screening were moved to full-text screening. Conflicts during full-text screening were resolved by deliberation and referring to the inclusion and exclusion criteria detailed in the research protocol. The level of agreement between the two authors for full text reviews as measured by inter-rater reliability was 0.72 (Cohen’s Kappa).

A data extraction template was created in Covidence to extract data from included full texts. Data extraction template included the following variables; country in which the study was conducted, year of publication, goal of the study (EOB, BI or both), population of the study (MS, Res or mixed) and the type of bias studied. Final data was exported to Microsoft Excel for quantification. For charting our data and categorizing the included studies, we followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews(PRISMA-ScR) guidelines [ 25 ]. Results from this scoping review study are meant to provide a visual synthesis of existing bias research and identify gaps in knowledge.

Study selection

Our search strategy yielded a total of 892 unique abstracts which were imported into ‘Covidence’ for screening. A total of 86 duplicate references were removed. Then, 806 titles and abstracts were screened for relevance independently by the authors and 519 studies were excluded at this stage. Any conflicts among the reviewers at this stage were resolved by discussion and referring to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Then a full text review of the remaining 287 papers was completed by the authors against the inclusion criteria for eligibility. Full text review was also conducted independently by the authors and any conflicts were resolved upon discussion. Finally, we included 139 studies which were used for data extraction (Fig.  1 ).

PRISMA diagram of the study selection process used in our scoping review to identify the bias categories that have been reported within medical education literature. Study took place from 2021–2022. Abbreviation: PRISMA, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Publication trends in bias research

First, we charted the studies to demonstrate the timeline of research focused on bias within the study population of our interest (MS or Res or mixed). Our analysis revealed an increase in publications with respect to time (Fig.  2 ). Of the 139 included studies, fewer studies were published prior to 2001, with a total of only eight papers being published from the years 1985–2000. A substantial increase in publications occurred after 2004, with 2019 being the peak year where most of the studies pertaining to bias were published (Fig.  2 ).

Studies matching inclusion criteria mapped by year of publication. Search criteria included studies addressing bias from 1980–2021 within medical students (MS) or residents (Res) or mixed (MS + Res) populations. * Publication in 2022 was published online ahead of print

Overview of included studies

We present a descriptive analysis of the 139 included studies in Table 1 based on the following parameters: study location, goal of the study, population of the study and the category of bias studied. All of the above parameters except the category of bias included a denominator of 139 studies. Several studies addressed more than one bias characteristic; therefore, we documented 163 biases sorted in 11 categories over the 139 papers. The bias categories that we generated and their respective occurrences are listed in Table 1 . Of the 139 studies that were included, most studies originated in the United States ( n  = 89/139, 64%) and Europe ( n  = 20/139, 20%).

Sorting of included research by bias category

We grouped the 139 included studies depending on the patient attribute or the descriptive characteristic against which the bias was studied (Table 1 ). By sorting the studies into different bias categories, we aimed to not only quantitate the amount of research addressing a particular topic of bias, but also reveal the biases that are understudied.

Through our analysis, we generated 11 descriptive categories against which bias was studied: Age, physical disability, education level, biological sex, disease or condition, LGBTQ + , non-specified, race/ethnicity, rural/urban, socio-economic status, and weight (Table 1 ). “Age” and “weight” categories included papers that studied bias against older population and higher weight individuals, respectively. The categories “education level” and “socio-economic status” included papers that studied bias against individuals with low education level and individuals belonging to low socioeconomic status, respectively. Within the bias category named ‘biological sex’, we included papers that studied bias against individuals perceived as women/females. Papers that studied bias against gender-identity or sexual orientation were included in its own category named, ‘LGBTQ + ’. The bias category, ‘disease or condition’ was broad and included research on bias against any patient with a specific disease, condition or lifestyle. Studies included in this category researched bias against any physical illnesses, mental illnesses, or sexually transmitted infections. It also included studies that addressed bias against a treatment such as transplant or pain management. It was not significant to report these as individual categories but rather as a whole with a common underlying theme. Rural/urban bias referred to bias that was held against a person based on their place of residence. Studies grouped together in the ‘non-specified bias’ category explored bias without specifying any descriptive characteristic in their methods. These studies did not address any specific bias characteristic in particular but consisted of a study population of our interest (MS or Res or mixed). Based on our analysis, the top five most studied bias categories in our included population within medical education literature were: racial or ethnic bias ( n  = 39/163, 24%), disease or condition bias ( n  = 29/163, 18%), weight bias ( n  = 22/163, 13%), LGBTQ + bias ( n  = 21/163, 13%), and age bias ( n  = 16/163, 10%) which are presented in Table 1 .

Sorting of included research by population

In order to understand the distribution of bias research based on their populations examined, we sorted the included studies in one of the following: medical students (MS), residents (Res) or mixed (Table 1 ). The following distributions were observed: medical students only ( n  = 105/139, 76%), residents only ( n  = 19/139, 14%) or mixed which consisted of both medical students and residents ( n  = 15/139, 11%). In combination, these results demonstrate that medical educators have focused bias research efforts primarily on medical student populations.

Sorting of included research by goal

A critical component of this scoping review was to quantify the research goal of the included studies within each of the bias categories. We defined the research goal as either to document evidence of bias (EOB) or to evaluate a bias intervention (BI) (see Fig.  1 for inclusion criteria). Some of the included studies focused on both, documenting evidence in addition to intervening biases and those studies were grouped separately. The analysis revealed that 69/139 (50%) of the included studies focused exclusively on documenting evidence of bias (EOB). There were fewer studies ( n  = 51/139, 37%) which solely focused on bias interventions such as programs, seminars or curricular innovations. A small minority of the included studies were more comprehensive in that they documented EOB followed by an intervention strategy ( n  = 19/139, 11%). These results demonstrate that most bias research is dedicated to documenting evidence of bias among these groups rather than evaluating a bias intervention strategy.

Research goal distribution

Our next objective was to calculate the distribution of studies with respect to the study goal (EOB, BI or both), within the 163 biases studied across the 139 papers as calculated in Table 1 . In general, the goal of the studies favors documenting evidence of bias with the exception of race/ethnic bias which is more focused on bias intervention (Fig.  3 ). Fewer studies were aimed at both, documenting evidence then providing an intervention, across all bias categories.

Sorting of total biases ( n  = 163) within medical students or residents or a mixed population based on the bias category . Dark grey indicates studies with a dual goal, to document evidence of bias and to intervene bias. Medium grey bars indicate studies which focused on documenting evidence of bias. Light grey bars indicate studies focused on bias intervention within these populations. Numbers inside the bars indicate the total number of biases for the respective study goal. * Non-specified bias includes studies which focused on implicit bias but did not mention the type of bias investigated

Furthermore, we also calculated the ratio of EOB, BI and both (EOB + BI) within each of our population of interest (MS; n  = 122, Res; n  = 26 and mixed; n  = 15) for the 163 biases observed in our included studies. Over half ( n  = 64/122, 52%) of the total bias occurrences in MS were focused on documenting EOB (Fig.  4 ). Contrastingly, a shift was observed within resident populations where most biases addressed were aimed at intervention ( n  = 12/26, 41%) rather than EOB ( n  = 4/26, 14%) (Fig.  4 ). Studies which included both MS and Res (mixed) were primarily focused on documenting EOB ( n  = 9/15, 60%), with 33% ( n  = 5/15) aimed at bias intervention and 7% ( n  = 1/15) which did both (Fig.  4 ). Although far fewer studies were documented in the Res population it is important to highlight that most of these studies were focused on bias intervention when compared to MS population where we documented a majority of studies focused on evidence of bias.

A ratio of the study goal for the total biases ( n  = 163) mapped within each of the study population (MS, Res and Mixed). A study goal with a) documenting evidence of bias (EOB) is depicted in dotted grey, b) bias intervention (BI) in medium grey, and c) a dual focus (EOB + BI) is depicted in dark grey. * N  = 122 for medical student studies. b N  = 26 for residents. c N  = 15 for mixed

Addressing biases at an earlier stage of medical career is critical for future physicians engaging with diverse patients, since it is established that bias negatively influences provider-patient interactions [ 171 ], clinical decision-making [ 172 ] and reduces favorable treatment outcomes [ 2 ]. We set out with an intention to explore how bias is addressed within the medical curriculum. Our research question was: how has the trend in bias research changed over time, more specifically a) what is the timeline of papers published? b) what bias characteristics have been studied in the physician-trainee population and c) how are these biases addressed? With the introduction of ‘standards of diversity’ by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, along with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the American Medical Association (AMA) [ 173 , 174 ], we certainly expected and observed a sustained uptick in research pertaining to bias. As shown here, research addressing bias in the target population (MS and Res) is on the rise, however only 139 papers fit our inclusion criteria. Of these studies, nearly 90% have been published since 2005 after the “Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care” report was published in 2003 [ 7 ]. However, given the well documented effects of physician held bias, we anticipated significantly more number of studies focused on bias at the medical student or resident level.

A key component from this study was that we generated descriptive categories of biases. Sorting the biases into descriptive categories helps to identify a more targeted approach for a specific bias intervention, rather than to broadly intervene bias as a whole. In fact, our analysis found a number of publications (labeled “non-specified bias” in Table 1 ) which studied implicit bias without specifying the patient attribute or the characteristic that the bias was against. In total, we generated 11 descriptive categories of bias from our scoping review which are shown in Table 1 and Fig.  3 . Furthermore, our bias descriptors grouped similar kinds of biases within a single category. For example, the category, “disease or condition” included papers that studied bias against any type of disease (Mental illness, HIV stigma, diabetes), condition (Pain management), or lifestyle. We neither performed a qualitative assessment of the studies nor did we test the efficacy of the bias intervention studies and consider it a future direction of this work.

Evidence suggests that medical educators and healthcare professionals are struggling to find the appropriate approach to intervene biases [ 175 , 176 , 177 ] So far, bias reduction, bias reflection and bias management approaches have been proposed [ 26 , 27 , 178 ]. Previous implicit bias intervention strategies have been shown to be ineffective when biased attitudes of participants were assessed after a lag [ 179 ]. Understanding the descriptive categories of bias and previous existing research efforts, as we present here is only a fraction of the challenge. The theory of “cognitive bias” [ 180 ] and related branches of research [ 13 , 181 , 182 , 183 , 184 ] have been studied in the field of psychology for over three decades. It is only recently that cognitive bias theory has been applied to the field of medical education medicine, to explain its negative influence on clinical decision-making pertaining only to racial minorities [ 1 , 2 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 185 ]. In order to elicit meaningful changes with respect to targeted bias intervention, it is necessary to understand the psychological underpinnings (attitudes) leading to a certain descriptive category of bias (behaviors). The questions which medical educators need to ask are: a) Can these descriptive biases be identified under certain type/s of cognitive errors that elicits the bias and vice versa b) Are we working towards an attitude change which can elicit a sustained positive behavior change among healthcare professionals? And most importantly, c) are we creating a culture where participants voluntarily enroll themselves in bias interventions as opposed to being mandated to participate? Cognitive psychologists and behavioral scientists are well-positioned to help us find answers to these questions as they understand human behavior. Therefore, an interdisciplinary approach, a marriage between cognitive psychologists and medical educators, is key in targeting biases held by medical students, residents, and ultimately future physicians. This review may also be of interest to behavioral psychologists, keen on providing targeted intervening strategies to clinicians depending on the characteristics (age, weight, sex or race) the portrayed bias is against. Further, instead of an individualized approach, we need to strive for systemic changes and evidence-based strategies to intervene biases.

The next element in change is directing intervention strategies at the right stage in clinical education. Our study demonstrated that most of the research collected at the medical student level was focused on documenting evidence of bias. Although the overall number of studies at the resident level were fewer than at the medical student level, the ratio of research in favor of bias intervention was higher at the resident level (see Fig.  3 ). However, it could be helpful to focus on bias intervention earlier in learning, rather than at a later stage [ 186 ]. Additionally, educational resources such as textbooks, preparatory materials, and educators themselves are potential sources of propagating biases and therefore need constant evaluation against best practices [ 187 , 188 ].

This study has limitations. First, the list of the descriptive bias categories that we generated was not grounded in any particular theory so assigning a category was subjective. Additionally, there were studies that were categorized as “nonspecified” bias as the studies themselves did not mention the specific type of bias that they were addressing. Moreover, we had to exclude numerous publications solely because they were not evidence-based and were either perspectives, commentaries or opinion pieces. Finally, there were overall fewer studies focused on the resident population, so the calculated ratio of MS:Res studies did not compare similar sample sizes.

Future directions of our study include working with behavioral scientists to categorize these bias characteristics (Table 1 ) into cognitive error types [ 189 ]. Additionally, we aim to assess the effectiveness of the intervention strategies and categorize the approach of the intervention strategies.

The primary goal of our review was to organize, compare and quantify literature pertaining to bias within medical school curricula and residency programs. We neither performed a qualitative assessment of the studies nor did we test the efficacy of studies that were sorted into “bias intervention” as is typical of scoping reviews [ 22 ]. In summary, our research identified 11 descriptive categories of biases studied within medical students and resident populations with “race and ethnicity”, “disease or condition”, “weight”, “LGBTQ + ” and “age” being the top five most studied biases. Additionally, we found a greater number of studies conducted in medical students (105/139) when compared to residents (19/139). However, most of the studies in the resident population focused on bias intervention. The results from our review highlight the following gaps: a) bias categories where more research is needed, b) biases that are studied within medical school versus in residency programs and c) study focus in terms of demonstrating the presence of bias or working towards bias intervention.

This review provides a visual analysis of the known categories of bias addressed within the medical school curriculum and in residency programs in addition to providing a comparison of studies with respect to the study goal within medical education literature. The results from our review should be of interest to community organizations, institutions, program directors and medical educators interested in knowing and understanding the types of bias existing within healthcare populations. It might be of special interest to researchers who wish to explore other types of biases that have been understudied within medical school and resident populations, thus filling the gaps existing in bias research.

Despite the number of studies designed to provide bias intervention for MS and Res populations, and an overall cultural shift to be aware of one’s own biases, biases held by both medical students and residents still persist. Further, psychologists have recently demonstrated the ineffectiveness of some bias intervention efforts [ 179 , 190 ]. Therefore, it is perhaps unrealistic to expect these biases to be eliminated altogether. However, effective intervention strategies grounded in cognitive psychology should be implemented earlier on in medical training. Our focus should be on providing evidence-based approaches and safe spaces for an attitude and culture change, so as to induce actionable behavioral changes.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

• Medical student

Evidence of bias

• Bias intervention

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Misa Mi, Professor and Medical Librarian at the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine (OWUB) for her assistance with selection of databases and construction of literature search strategies for the scoping review. The authors also wish to thank Dr. Changiz Mohiyeddini, Professor in Behavioral Medicine and Psychopathology at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine (OUWB) for his expertise and constructive feedback on our manuscript.

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Lewis, B.E., Naik, A.R. A scoping review to identify and organize literature trends of bias research within medical student and resident education. BMC Med Educ 23 , 919 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04829-6

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A scoping review of research on languaging in second language education

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With the rapid development of studies on second language acquisition (SLA) and sociocultural theory, languaging has recently gained increasing attention. To assess the existing research on languaging and determine implications for future research, the present study aims to present a scoping review of research on languaging in second language (L2) education. Specifically, this study intends to explore the major subjects of languaging, the effects of languaging, the factors that may influence the effects of languaging, and the ways in which languaging is integrated into the L2 class. In total, 27 relevant peer-reviewed articles were selected for further analysis using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocol (PRISMA-P) for further analysis. The findings of this review show that a) languaging subjects are primarily pertinent to university learners; b) the facilitative effect of languaging on language learning has been verified, with written languaging being the most frequently practiced form of languaging task; c) learner language proficiency, learning style, and corrective feedback are the critical factors contributing to the effect of languaging; and d) three ways of integrating languaging into L2 classes are identified: experiment, pedagogical means, and a mixed mode of experiment and pedagogical techniques. Based on the findings of this review, a model of languaging integration was proposed in four steps: task assignment, languaging with prompts, a post-test, and reflection. This review suggests future avenues for researching and implementing languaging in L2 classes.

1. Introduction

With the advent of the social turn in second language acquisition (SLA) research, sociocultural theory has been attracting increasing attention from both academia and practitioners in the past decades [ 1 , 2 ]. As one of the core concepts of socio-cultural theory, languaging has recently emerged as a hot topic [ [3] , [4] , [5] ]. This refers to the process of constructing meaning, shaping knowledge, and generating experiences through language [ 6 ]. It has been applied to the analysis of video games, linguistics, artificial intelligence, educational virtual worlds, and other topics at various education levels (e.g., Ref. [ 7 ]).

Scholars have displayed a growing interest in the practice of languaging in second language (L2) classes at different levels, ranging from primary schools to tertiary institutions [ 8 ]. Previous studies have explored the effect of languaging on L2 learning among divergent learner populations in different contexts (i.e., [ [9] , [10] , [11] ]). However, knowledge of how learners as subjects of languaging perceive languaging is limited.

Languaging has been reported to be effective in promoting language learning, particularly in the domains of speaking [ 11 ], writing [ 12 ], listening [ 4 ], and reading [ 15 ]. For instance, grammar test-takers treated with languaging outperformed their counterparts without languaging [ 12 ]. Incongruous results have been reported regarding the effects of languaging on L2 writing. Independent learning without languaging has been reported to be more effective for beginner learners in learning L2 writing [ 14 ]. Nevertheless, it has been found that languaging in rewriting tasks is beneficial to L2 writing learners [ 15 ]. These early studies report inconsistent results regarding the effects of languaging on L2 learning.

In addition, factors that may influence the effects of languaging have been explored in previous studies [ 4 , [16] , [17] , [18] ]. Factors such as corrective feedback [ 19 , 20 ], learning style [ 21 ], learning environment [ 7 ], and language proficiency [ 22 ] have been identified as influential elements. For example, proficient learners distinguish themselves from their less proficient counterparts when languaging [ 23 ]. Factors other than language, however, like proficiency have been less addressed [ 24 ]. Therefore, it is unclear how these factors contribute to the effects of languaging.

In tandem with the exploration of the effects of languaging, there has been an emerging trend in how languaging is integrated with education in recent years. Languaging has been used as a pedagogical technique to guide learners’ revision of L2 writing [ 23 ]. This classroom practice supports the pedagogical value of languaging. Languaging is also applied as an experimental means to examine its potential effect on L2 learning, as in story writing [ 15 ]. Moreover, languaging has been used as an experimental strategy to validate the effectiveness of indirect feedback in L2 writing revision [ 14 ]. Existing studies have indicated multiple ways to integrate languaging into L2 classes. Thus, it is necessary to obtain a complete picture of how these languaging methods are integrated into classroom language teaching.

The inconsistencies in the findings pertaining to languaging in L2 classes reported in previous studies thus necessitate further exploration. This is of considerable significance given that a large proportion of students express an earnest expectation of seeking strategic instruction for effective languaging from their teachers [ 9 , 25 , 26 ]. However, there has been little work synthesizing the existing research on languaging. To bridge this gap, the present study aims to systematically review the current state of research on languaging in L2 classes. To this end, this review specifically examines the main subjects of languaging, the effects of languaging and their influencing factors, and the ways in which languaging is integrated into L2 classes.

To the best of our knowledge, four reviews of languaging are currently available (i.e., [ 24 , [27] , [28] , [29] ]). For instance, Zeng [ 24 ] systematically reviewed the methods applied to languaging research, the means and types of languaging, and languaging tasks. However, he did not specify the principles for selecting or including the literature to be reviewed. Another review synthesised forms of languaging, such as oral and written, using various tasks [ 27 ]. Xu and Fu [ 28 ] primarily reviewed research on private speech, a form of languaging, but did not offer a complete picture of languaging research. The fourth review analysed the functions and research topics of written languaging [ 29 ]. The aforementioned studies diverge from the present study, which concentrates on other critical aspects of sustaining L2 education ( Table 1 ).

The comparison between previous studies and this study.

2. Literature review

Recent years have witnessed the prevalence of sociocultural theory in SLA studies [ 1 , 30 ]. Sociocultural theory views language as an essential mediator of cognitive development [ 2 , 31 ]. In an early attempt to explore the role of output in SLA, Swain [ 32 ] proposed the far-reaching influential comprehensible output hypothesis. This later led to the emergence of a number of sociocultural concepts including ‘output’, ‘verbalizing’, ‘verbalization’, ‘collaborative dialogue’ and ‘languaging’, which are applied to capture the role of language production in L2 learning [ 27 ].

Languaging has been conceptualized as the process of making meaning, shaping knowledge, and generating experience through language [ 6 , 26 ]. There are two forms of languaging, oral and written. Oral languaging has been identified as facilitating L2 learning (e.g. Refs. [ 25 , 33 ]). Compared to oral languaging, written languaging has been examined less frequently. Nevertheless, written languaging has merits in terms of data collection, thus having the advantages of operationalizability in research and practice [ 3 ]. Accordingly, languaging, particularly in written language, has recently drawn attention from academia [ 4 , 14 , 20 , 34 ].

Languaging has been examined in various educational fields such as virtual realities, journalism and communication, literature, and language. In tertiary education, it is common for art and education students to integrate languaging into their respective disciplinary studies. In language learning, languaging is considered effective in facilitating learners’ acquisition of the target language. Languaging plays a mediating role in improving learners’ oral fluency [ 22 ]. The facilitative effect of languaging has also been verified [ 3 ]. However, languaging activities pose challenges to learners. To accommodate these challenges, regulation skills including paraphrasing, integration, elaboration, hypothesis formation, self-assessment, and rereading have been suggested [ 6 ].

Despite the increasing number of studies on languaging, attempts to synthesise relevant studies are limited [ 24 , [27] , [28] , [29] ]. Among the few review studies, Zeng [ 24 ] examined research on languaging in foreign language education, but did not explain how the reviewed studies were selected. Qin and Niu [ 29 ] discussed topics in empirical studies of languaging, but did not report the source of the literature. Niu and Li [ 27 ] selected 15 articles and reviewed language studies published between 2006 and 2017. In addition, they did not introduce sources of the literature. Xu and Fu [ 28 ] focused only on oral languaging in private speech. Overall, none of these reviews specified the source of the literature or criteria for selecting the papers to be reviewed. As languaging has been increasingly drawing attention [ 29 ], the latest development trends in languaging are worth exploring.

Early reviews offered a detailed picture of the current research on languaging. However, these are mainly subjective summaries and interpretations of previous studies without reporting the principles of scoping or selecting the reviewed papers. Moreover, these reviews did not focus on the research subjects of languaging. In fact, existing research has explored languaging among multiple populations such as public school teachers [ 11 ] and tertiary EFL students [ 9 ], undergraduate students [ 10 ], and adult learners [ 5 ]. The attitudes of these participants towards languaging activities may be divergent. However, there is limited knowledge of how these diverse subjects perceive languaging. Thus, the authors propose the following research question (RQ1): Who are the major subjects of languaging?

It has been validated that languaging can promote language learning. Research has mainly explored the effect of languaging through various tasks, such as speaking with pronunciation tasks [ 23 ], listening with dictogloss tasks [ 4 ], reading with translation tasks [ 22 ], vocabulary [ 4 ], and writing [ 12 ]. The facilitative impact of languaging on L2 reading learning has also been verified using a set of grammar tests [ 3 ]. Language has a positive effect on grammatical accuracy and fluency in learners’ writing [ 14 ]. However, languaging for different grammatical tasks tends to elicit different sentence patterns [ 30 ]. Research has also confirmed the role of languaging in vocabulary acquisition [ 4 ]. Previous studies demonstrated the effects of languaging on language acquisition. For example, Xu and Fu [ 28 ] combined languaging from a vocabulary acquisition perspective. However, none of the four available reviews summarises the effect of languaging at the domain level of language learning. Therefore, the effects of language must be investigated systematically. Thus, the following research question was proposed (RQ2): What are the effects of languaging?

Existing research has explored factors that may contribute to the effects of languaging, including corrective feedback [ 16 , 19 ], language proficiency [ 18 ], ways of regulation [ 17 ], and learning style [ 21 ]. For example, indirect corrective feedback is more effective than direct corrective feedback because the former facilitates a deeper level of processing [ 16 ]. Nevertheless, indirect corrective feedback has been argued to be too demanding for learners during languaging [ 19 ]. It has also been found that pairs who collaboratively write an essay with languaging produce more error-free clauses than those who write the same essay alone with languaging [ 21 ]. In other words, different learning styles may influence the effects of languaging differently. Language proficiency also plays a significant role in languaging. Less proficient learners are dwarfed compared to their counterparts in their quantity and quality of languaging [ 18 ]. Although the influence of language proficiency on languaging has been examined, review articles have primarily focused on proficient learners [ 24 ]. Additionally, it has been found that proficiency level may undergo a shift if the less successful learners are provided with proper instruction [ 17 ]. Therefore, further exploration of the factors influencing the effects of languaging is necessary [ 29 ]. This review thus investigates a third research question (RQ3): What are the factors that may influence the effect of languaging?

Methods for integrating languaging into L2 classes have recently drawn attention from academia (i.e., [ 15 , 29 ]). It has been found that Content and Language Integrated Instruction (CLII) could effectively promote learners’ internalisation of content knowledge and language knowledge through oral languaging activities [ 29 ]. Similarly, an opportunity to engage in languaging with the support of source reading and models can facilitate the generation of students’ ideas and allow them to reflect on their language knowledge [ 15 ]. It seems that languaging has been integrated into L2 classes using different pedagogical and experimental techniques. However, there is currently no literature summarising the ways in which languaging is integrated into L2 classes, a gap that warrants further exploration of the integration of languaging into L2 teaching and learning. Thus, the authors propose the following research question (RQ4): What are the ways to integrate languaging into L2 class?

3. Research methods

This review followed the rapid assessment of the literature method [ 35 ], namely the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocol (PRISMA-P). As a scoping review framework, PRISMA-P has been extensively applied in a variety of disciplines including humanities [ 36 ], engineering [ 37 ], education [ 8 ], and linguistics [ 38 ], because of its advantage in presenting a highly focused thematic systematic examination of research on a particular topic [ 39 ]. The selection process of the retrieved literature was as follows ( Fig. 1 ). Following the PRISMA-P approach and grounded on the research questions, the literature on several online databases was first searched. The retrieved studies were screened according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Subsequently, a quality assessment questionnaire (see Supplementary Materials for the PRISMA checklist) was administered to identify the included studies. Finally, the literature was examined and synthesised.

Flow diagram of literature selection.

3.1. Literature search

On December 30, 2022, 559 results were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection by keying in ‘languaging’ OR ‘language output’ AND ‘education’ OR ‘second language’ OR ‘written’ OR ‘reflection’ (topic), and 314 results were obtained from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) on 30 December of 2022 by keying in ‘languaging’ OR ‘言语化’ OR ‘言说’ OR ‘语言表达’ OR ‘语言输出’ (key words) AND ‘外语教学’ OR ‘二语教学’ (topic). Consequently, the literature search generated a total 873 results, which were imported into EndNote to remove duplicate studies. The study was conducted from January 2002 to December 2022.

3.2. Inclusion and exclusion criteria

The retrieved studies were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Studies were included if they (1) focused on second language education, (2) targeted at least one question in the review study, and (3) were written in English or Chinese. Studies were excluded if they (1) did not focus on second-language education, (2) were not related to any question in the review study, (3) were written in other languages, or (4) were not journal articles. Based on the aforementioned scoping procedures, the inclusion and exclusion of the retrieved articles were conducted as follows. Before screening, 67 papers were removed because they were duplicates, leaving 805 articles for later analysis. Subsequently, articles that did not focus on L2 education ( n  = 293) or were unrelated to the research questions ( n  = 236), not written in English or Chinese ( n  = 103), or not journal articles ( n  = 37) were all excluded under the inclusion and exclusion criteria. This step yielded 137 articles for further quality assessment.

3.3. Quality assessment

Quality assessment was conducted based on the University of West England Framework [ 40 ] for the objective of guaranteeing the quality of the finally included studies. Each study was evaluated according to the following questions (Appendix A): (1) Adequate information available for this review study. (2) Rigid design and clear description of the research design. (3) A clear and unambiguous presentation of results. (4) Clear and convincing conclusions. The four assessments followed the quantitative principle: ‘Yes (2)’, ‘Limited (1)’, and ‘No (0)’.

Articles that did not provide sufficient information ( n  = 43), lacked rigid research methods ( n  = 31), had ambiguous results ( n  = 24), or had unconvincing conclusions ( n  = 16) were removed according to the quality assessment criteria. In addition, two articles were added before screening and one article was added after two rounds of screening. Finally, 27 articles were obtained for this review, including 23 empirical articles and 4 review articles. Based on these measurements, the assessment scores of the selected articles ranged 0–8.

4.1. Subjects of languaging

Table 2 provides information on the main subjects of languaging in the literature. Previous studies have primarily focused on both student learners and teachers. Specifically, 23 studies set their subjects as languaging on students, and only 2 focused on teachers. It appears that student learners have received overwhelmingly more attention than teachers in languaging research. Among student learners, university undergraduates were the largest group ( N  = 15) explored in terms of languaging. The second group comprised secondary school students ( N  = 5). Limited attention has been paid to other groups of subjects, including postgraduates ( N  = 2), adults ( N  = 1), secondary school English teachers ( N  = 1), and university English teachers ( N  = 1).

Subjects of languaging.

Table 3 reveals four features of subjects’ attitudes towards languaging activities. First, the majority ( N  = 12) of the surveyed participants seemed to have a positive attitude towards the effect of languaging. It has been suggested that learners tend to use languaging to reflect on their language learning and improve their language proficiency. Thus, they display a strong willingness to cooperate with their teachers when conducting languaging activities [ 4 , 17 , 34 ]. Similarly, teachers, when practising languaging as reported in some studies, acknowledge its value in improving their pedagogical competence [ 11 ]. Unlike those subjects who endorsed the positive effects of languaging, three studies revealed negative attitudes among the surveyed participants. These participants did not seem to understand the facilitative function of languaging but were concerned with their translation accuracy when participating in languaging activities [ 41 ]. The third attitude towards languaging pertains to participants’ perceived challenges when languaging. While being clear about the potential significance of conducting languaging activities, they tend to be reluctant towards languaging with grammar tasks because of the difficulties they encounter in languaging activities [ 10 ]. It is also noteworthy that the three other studies did not explicitly indicate their participants’ attitudes towards languaging.

Learner attitudes towards languaging.

4.2. Effect of languaging

Languaging has the following three functions: attention to the target language, hypothesis testing for learning the target language, and metalanguage [ 42 ]. These functions have been manifested in previous studies (i.e., [ 3 , 4 , 14 ]). The empirical research under the present review reveals that the effects of languaging may be mainly summarised under the following two aspects: The first is the medium through which languaging works. A series of languaging tasks were deployed as media to promote their effect on language learning. The second category pertains to the positive and negative effects of languaging.

4.2.1. Media through which languaging works

Researchers have focused on various tasks to explore the effects of languaging. These tasks are considered media through which languaging can affect language learning at the domain level ( Table 4 ). Most included papers ( N  = 23) were empirical studies which adopted different languaging tasks. Among these tasks, the major medium was writing ( N  = 12), followed by grammar ( N  = 4) and translation ( N  = 3). Other languaging tasks were also applied, including pronunciation ( N  = 1), dictogloss ( N  = 1), vocabulary ( N  = 1), and omnibus tasks ( N  = 1).

Languaging tasks.

Writing was the most frequently used language task ( N  = 12). Writing tasks are often used to verify the quality and quantity of languaging. Writing generally offers learners more time to reflect on their thoughts [ 3 ]. The analysis of written products in terms of syntactic complexity, grammatical accuracy, and fluency shows that languaging itself may have been effective in improving students’ writing skills [ 14 ]. The facilitative effect of writing as a languaging tool has been demonstrated in rewriting activities. For instance, it has been found that learners benefit from languaging with peers and models when approaching rewriting tasks, which testifies that languaging could serve as a critical means for language learning [ 15 ].

A few studies ( N  = 3) have shown that languaging facilitates the learning of translation [ 21 , 30 , 43 ]. In the realm of L2 pedagogy, translation has an obvious place in the framework of task-based language teaching since translation can constitute an authentic problem-solving activity [ 10 ]. Translation is used as a languaging activity with intermediate and advanced L2 learners [ 43 ]. As translation is a complex task involving the comparison of two languages, it is likely to engender the use of language among learners who discuss various aspects of language use [ 21 ].

Grammar tasks ( N  = 3) were often combined with contextualised pedagogic activities. Contextualised grammar tasks can enable EFL learners to produce languaging on the use of target language. Different contextualised grammar tasks tend to elicit various amounts of languaging in the use of the target language [ 30 ]. The facilitative impact of languaging on L2 grammar learning with a set of contextualised grammar tests was further acknowledged in later studies (i.e. [ 3 ]). However, decontextualised grammar exercises have been reported to play an important role in L2 learning, particularly in EFL contexts, where the first language is common to the students and teachers [ 18 ]. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the role of languaging in L2 learning by using decontextualised grammar tasks.

Dictogloss is a technique for teaching grammatical structures, in which students form small groups and summarise target-language texts [ 44 ]. Students’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills can be comprehensively improved during the dictogloss process using languaging [ 45 ]. For instance, L2 learners credited with the opportunity to conduct languaging have been reported to outperform those without the chance of languaging when fulfilling dictogloss tasks [ 4 ]. It seems that dictogloss is an effective languaging activity for improving learners’ comprehension competence.

Vocabulary tasks are seldom used alone, but the effect of languaging on vocabulary acquisition has been confirmed [ 13 , 17 ]. For example, a significant difference in the use of target words between languaging and non-languaging groups was identified in an investigation of the effects of written languaging on vocabulary acquisition [ 13 ]. The Languaging group outperformed the non-languaging group in the acquisition of word forms and meanings. Moreover, the quality and quantity of languaging are not related to the use of vocabulary but to form and meaning to various extents [ 17 ].

In summary, several empirical studies have shown that organising students to participate in languaging activities through different kinds of tasks can promote the development of four domains of language learning such as grammar, reading, and vocabulary [ 46 ].

4.2.2. Effect of languaging

Synthesizing the 23 included empirical studies suggests that the effects of languaging fall into the following three types ( Table 5 ): a positive effect on language learning ( N  = 15), a challenging effect ( N  = 4), and no obvious effect ( N  = 4).

Effect of languaging.

Existing studies ( N  = 15) have verified that languaging has a positive effect on language learning (i.e. [ 4 , 33 ]). In an experimental study, five languaging writing tasks are conducted with two groups of Iranian intermediate English learners [ 4 ]. In each task, written languaging was administered to the experimental group but not the control group. There was a significant intergroup difference, indicating that written languaging had a positive effect on writing revision. The positive effect of languaging on grammar learning has been validated in previous studies (i.e., [ 33 ]). Additionally, the remaining studies ( N  = 4) held that languaging does have an effect, but one highly constrained. For instance, it has been suggested that the use of metalinguistic knowledge with feedback is not necessarily more effective than free languaging without feedback for beginner-level L2 writing development among beginner-level learners [ 14 ]. However, some studies ( N  = 4) did not explicitly indicate whether languaging was effective. In a study of the effect of written languaging among advanced Chinese English learners, it was found that the accuracy of composition revision improved in both the experimental group with languaging and the control group without languaging [ 34 ]. These studies seem to reveal that while languaging has been reported to have a positive effect on language learning, its influence is also constrained by certain factors.

4.3. Factors affecting the effect of languaging

Previous studies have explored the factors that may affect the effectiveness of languaging. As shown in Table 6 , six studies focused on the influence of corrective feedback on the effect of languaging, followed by learning style ( N  = 6), and language proficiency ( N  = 5). Two studies examined the impact of the learning environment on languaging, with only one study examining the teaching model ( N  = 1) and regulations ( N  = 1) as influential factors. Moreover, there are two studies which did not consider other factors.

Factors affecting the effect of languaging.

4.3.1. Corrective feedback

Six studies indicated an association between languaging and corrective feedback (i.e., [ 4 , 19 , 47 ]). These studies (i.e. [ 14 , 20 ]) concluded that languaging based on corrective feedback affects language learning: 1) direct and indirect corrective feedback with languaging is both effective for language learning and 2) indirect corrective feedback is more effective for languaging than direct corrective feedback if learners have metalinguistic knowledge.

In recent years, scholars have mainly examined the role of written corrective feedback in foreign language learning in combination with languaging. Written feedback is provided in both direct and indirect forms [ 48 ]. Direct corrective feedback refers to feedback given by pointing out the errors in learners’ writing while simultaneously showing the correct form. Indirect corrective feedback is where the teacher indicates the location of errors by marking or underlining them but without showing the correct form [ 14 ].

It has been found that both direct and indirect corrective feedback with languaging are conducive in promoting language learning [ 4 , 18 ]. Specifically, languaging with indirect corrective feedback can improve students’ grammatical accuracy while writing [ 18 ]. By contrast, direct corrective feedback with languaging is more effective than direct corrective feedback without languaging in writing [ 4 ].

Languaging based on direct and indirect corrective feedback is considered helpful for writing revision among low-level English learners [ 20 ]. Indirect corrective feedback is more effective because it facilitates a deeper level of processing by encouraging learners to engage in hypothesis testing [ 16 ]. However, indirect corrective feedback tends to pose certain challenges to learners and impedes hypothesis-testing [ 19 ]. It seems that indirect corrective feedback is less effective than direct corrective feedback when learners do not possess metalinguistic knowledge [ 19 , 47 ].

4.3.2. Learning styles

The included six studies explore the impact of learning styles on the effects of languaging [ 17 , 21 ]. Their findings suggest that: 1) both collaborative and independent learning have a positive influence on the effect of languaging; and 2) collaborative learning exerts more influence than independent learning on the effect of languaging.

First, collaborative and independent learning have been found to positively influence the effects of languaging. For instance, one study explored how languaging helps learners create meaning between scientific and spontaneous concepts across different collaborative writing tasks. The results show that collaborative writing plays a significant role in the development of L2 learners’ rhetorical concepts. It was also found that interactions among peers in collaborative writing tasks might shape, develop, and renew L2 learners’ conceptualisation of the genre concept [ 49 ]. In addition, languaging is found to be observable in learners’ Language-Related Episodes (LREs) [ 9 ]. Independent learning brings about significantly fewer LREs than collaborative learning, and independent learning LREs are similar to the LREs initiated by each learner in a collaborative study [ 5 ]. These results suggest that independent learning can identify language problems to a similar extent as collaborative learning. In other words, both collaborative and independent learning positively influence the effects of languaging.

Additionally, collaborative learning was found to be more influential than independent learning on the effect of languaging. Participants who collaboratively write argumentative essays have been found to produce significantly more error-free clauses than learners who write the same essay alone [ 21 ]. In addition, the additive effect of the two learners in a collaborative study leads to greater languaging than in independent studies [ 5 ]. It was concluded that collaborative learning contributes to the construction of meaning in L2 writing [ 50 ].

4.3.3. Language proficiency

Five selected studies of the impact of learners’ language proficiency on languaging revealed the following findings: 1) proficient and less proficient learners can both benefit from languaging; 2) proficient learners can produce more language-related episodes than less proficient learners; and 3) less proficient learners benefit more from languaging than their proficient counterparts.

First, both proficient and less proficient learners have been reported to benefit from languaging. In a study investigating the potential impact of proficiency level on languaging, a remarkable difference was identified between proficient and less proficient learners in terms of focus on the target form. There was no difference in the type or amount of languaging between the two groups [ 41 ]. Second, proficient learners who practice balanced languaging types outperform less proficient learners who rely mainly on one languaging form [ 23 ]. The former produce more grammatical language-related episodes than the latter [ 18 ]. In other words, proficient learners demonstrated a more accurate understanding of the languaging task. Moreover, compared to their less proficient counterparts, proficient learners seemed to attend more to L2 grammatical forms, regardless of the type of exercise [ 18 ]. Less proficient learners would language less about the targeted grammar than proficient learners. In fact, less proficient learners’ attentional capacity is consumed more by processing meaning than linguistic forms [ 22 ]. Moreover, written languaging enables learners to work at their own pace under less time pressure, thereby providing more readily available permanent records [ 26 ]. Therefore, less proficient learners are likely to benefit more from written languaging than are proficient learners.

4.3.4. Other factors

Apart from the three factors mentioned above, two other variables, the learning environment and method of regulation, were also discussed in the remaining four selected studies. Regarding the impact of the learning environment on languaging, how learners interact in diverse learning environments (i.e. virtual reality and the classroom) has been explored [ 7 ]. It was shown that learners could be active observers in classrooms and virtual environments to various degrees. Conventional classroom environments offer predictable languaging conditions. In contrast, in a virtual space, students are invited to engage in different languaging settings. Although it has not been argued whether one learning environment is better than another, virtual environments clearly offer more opportunities for languaging with diversified activities that may not be available in real classroom settings.

Another influential factor is the method of languaging regulation. Both teacher regulation and self-regulation were found to have significant effects on languaging. While teacher scaffolding can engender significant improvements in grammar accuracy, it may fail to provide additional benefits to learners who do not recognise teacher scaffolding [ 9 ]. Furthermore, dual regulation combining teacher regulation and self-regulation could be accomplished to increase the accuracy of using targeted grammatical knowledge in language [ 9 ].

In summary, the effects of languaging are the result of multiple factors. It should be noted that these factors do not work independently. Instead, they collectively contribute to the effects of language. The interplay of factors such as learning styles, language proficiency, and corrective feedback might result from the effects of languaging [ 18 , 51 , 52 ].

4.4. Ways of languaging integration into L2 class

Through the analysis of the 23 included empirical studies (i.e. [ 53 , 54 ]), the ways of integrating languaging into L2 classes could be roughly divided into three types ( Table 7 ): experiment, pedagogical means, and mixed integration of experimental and pedagogical techniques. The experimental method of languaging integration ( N  = 6) refers to directly leading students to perform languaging activities and analysing their language levels before and after the experiment. The pedagogical means ( N  = 3) deploy languaging as a teaching strategy. In the teaching process, students are often consciously instructed to perform languaging activities. In contrast to the previous two modes of languaging integration, an overwhelming number of studies ( N  = 14) have applied a mixed integration of experimental and pedagogical techniques. In other words, experiments designed with languaging activities were integrated into the classroom teaching process.

Ways of languaging integration into L2 class.

The first languaging integration method involves experimentation. For instance, experiments have been conducted to examine the effect of languaging by asking four pairs of Chinese university English as a foreign language (EFL) students to rewrite a story from a different perspective in three stages (composing-comparing-revising) [ 15 ]. The opportunity to engage in languaging with the support of source readings and models can facilitate the generation of students’ ideas and expressions that are essential for writing. Engagement in languaging could also allow learners to reflect on the language knowledge acquired during the process of writing and revising, which is conducive to improving their L2 writing performance.

With regard to languaging integration as a pedagogical method, teaching models such as Content and Language Integrated Instruction (CLII) have recently become prevalent [ 29 ]. Most studies of CLII set their research settings in English as a foreign or second-language context (i.e. [ 53 ]). Another notable feature of CLII is the implicit teaching mode used to teach knowledge of language rules such as grammar and vocabulary [ 48 , 55 ]. Using languaging activities and following sociocultural theory, Qin et al. [ 54 ] investigated the internalisation of content concept and language rule knowledge by students in the CLII model. It was found that CLII was helpful for students’ internalisation of content and language knowledge.

The third method of languaging integration features a combination of experiments and pedagogical techniques. Various languaging activities are experimentally designed to be integrated into L2 classroom teaching [ 14 , 22 ]. The design of these languaging activities usually includes the following steps: task assignment, languaging with prompts, a post-test, and reflection. These steps are often designed to experiment with the effects of languaging for both research and pedagogical purposes. For example, the above steps were incorporated into an L2 class to test the effects of languaging on L2 learning and teaching [ 22 ]. The mixed integration of these steps in languaging was effective in eliciting information for research and in facilitating teaching.

The divergent methods of languaging integration justify the fact that languaging has value in facilitating teaching and learning. Languaging, as an important mediational tool, can assist participants in co-constructing meaning and solving problems in the process of learning. Under the CLII model, the internalisation of students’ knowledge of content concepts increases with the progress of the course [ 54 ]. At the same time, although the knowledge of language rules is implicit teaching, students’ language levels and quality improved [ 54 ].

5. Discussion

This review systematically analyses previous studies on languaging from the perspective of the main subjects, the effect of languaging, the factors that might influence the effect of languaging, and the ways in which languaging is integrated into the L2 class.

RQ1 aimed to explore the main subjects of languaging in L2 classes. The findings show that previous scholarship is associated more with student learners than with adult learners and teachers in the exploration of languaging in L2 classes. This is probably because tertiary learners, in contrast to younger learners such as pupils and middle schoolers, can comprehend languaging tasks more easily, and may have more free time at their disposal to accomplish languaging tasks [ 3 ]. Another possible explanation is that most researchers are teachers at higher education institutions. Thus, they can enjoy the convenience of recruiting samples on campus for their studies [ 23 ]. With regard to the subjects’ attitudes towards languaging, the review revealed that a majority of the surveyed subjects had a positive attitude towards the effect of languaging [ 17 ], while a small number held a negative attitude [ 41 ]. Additionally, some studies have revealed that some surveyed subjects perceived it as challenging for them to undertake languaging activities [ 10 ]. It seems that most subjects realised the potential benefits of languaging in their L2 learning. It also implies that teachers need to provide appropriate scaffolding to learners when incorporating language into their teaching processes.

RQ2 aimed to identify the effects of languaging in L2 classes. First, it explores the media through which languaging is applied. It has been found that the prevalent media are writing tasks, followed by grammar tasks, translation tasks, and other tasks related to pronunciation, dictogloss, vocabulary and omnibus tasks. Of the diverse media for languaging tasks, writing is the most frequently used. This might be because of the longer time involved in completing the writing activities which could enable learners to fully reflect on their thoughts [ 3 ]. This finding indicates that L2 writing is a major focus of SLA research. In addition, this study found that grammar and translation tasks were used as media for languaging. It is noteworthy that these tasks are often not used alone but combined with other contextualised pedagogical tasks. In these contextualised tasks, vocabulary, translation, dictoglosses, and translation are involved when learners execute languaging tasks. Another objective of Research Question 2 was to explore the effects of languaging. Analysis of the relevant literature revealed that over two-thirds of the reviewed articles reported a positive effect of languaging. This result echoes what was found in languaging subjects’ perceived attitude, as previously reported in Research Question 1. Another point that deserves attention is the challenge of languaging activities, as suggested by the literature. This further confirmed the languaging participants’ perceptions of the first research question. This result may be interpreted as a reminder that the effect of languaging is associated with other constraining factors [ 14 ].

RQ3 focused on the factors that might be responsible for the effect of languaging in L2 classes. An analysis of the literature shows that a multitude of factors contribute to the effects of languaging in L2 classes, namely corrective feedback, learning style, language proficiency, learning environment, and regulation. Interestingly, corrective feedback is the most frequently reported determinant of the effect of languaging. This result corroborates the findings reported earlier in this review that writing tasks are one of the primary media through which languaging is executed. This finding confirms that corrective feedback is one of the research agendas in L2 writing studies. More importantly, the results revealed the possibility of examining corrective feedback through the lens of languaging. The second major factor contributing to the effect of languaging is learning style. As the literature suggests, learning styles such as independent and collaborative learning tend to exert different influences on languaging. Specifically, collaborative learning is more influential than independent learning in languaging. This can be explained by the fully exercised potential and possible peer review in collaborative work [ 17 ]. Third, language proficiency is a major contributor to the effects of languaging. While both proficient and less proficient learners can benefit from languaging, the latter seem to gain more than the former. This result may be explained as follows: Less proficient learners’ attentional capacity is consumed more by processing meaning than linguistic form during languaging [ 22 ]. Written languaging generally enables learners to work at their own pace under less time pressure, and provides more readily available permanent records [ 26 ]. As a result, less proficient learners are more likely to benefit from written languaging than are proficient learners. Lastly, it is cautioned that the effect of languaging stems not purely from a single factor but from the interplay of all these potential factors.

RQ4 aimed to understand how languaging is incorporated into L2 classes. Three types of languaging integration were identified in the present review: experimental, pedagogical means, and mixed integration of experimental and pedagogical techniques. Of these three methods, mixed integration is the most frequently adopted, followed by experimental and pedagogical techniques. Specifically, it is found that Content and Language Integrated Instruction (CLII) is an emerging teaching model in languaging research. Previous studies have legitimised that the mixed integration of languaging with both experimental and pedagogical means can exert certain effects on L2 learning. Based on the findings of the present review, a four-step languaging integration model is proposed ( Fig. 2 ). This model can also be applied in L2 classes. As shown in Fig. 2 , teachers first choose tasks that are suitable for the students’ levels, catering to their interests and reflecting the language learning goals to be achieved [ 4 , 23 ]. Second, teachers are suggested to guide students in the process of languaging, such as giving prompts to ensure that the students language in detail about the relevant knowledge [ 5 ]. After languaging, teachers can test the effect of languaging on L2 learning [ 3 ]. After the test, teachers can explain the purpose of this to students, that is, the role of languaging. Finally, students and teachers reflect on the effects of languaging and room for further improvement [ 54 ].

A model of languaging integration.

6. Conclusion

6.1. major findings.

This review aimed to provide an analysis of previous studies of languaging in terms of the major subjects of languaging, the effect of languaging, the influencing factors on languaging, and the ways in which languaging is integrated into the L2 class. First, the findings show that the main subjects of languaging are undergraduate students. Most of the surveyed participants showed a positive attitude towards languaging. Regarding the effects of languaging, writing tasks are the most frequently used medium through which languaging is conducted. In addition, a majority of research has verified the positive effect of languaging, although some research indicates possible challenges of languaging which deserve teachers’ and researchers’ attention. Third, this review found that languaging is related to multiple factors, including corrective feedback, learning style, and language proficiency. Finally, three methods of languaging integration into the L2 class were identified in this review: experimental, pedagogical means, and mixed integration of experimental and pedagogical techniques. Based on the review in this paper, a model of languaging integration into L2 classes was proposed with the following four steps: task assignment, languaging with prompts, post-test, and reflection.

6.2. Implications

This review has several theoretical implications. First, it suggests that existing research on languaging has mainly focused on tertiary learners, whereas other groups, such as teachers, adult learners, and postgraduates, have received limited attention. Therefore, more effort is needed to understand the languaging practices of less-examined groups [ 23 ]. Second, this review found that writing tasks are the primary medium through which languaging is applied. Other media used for languaging include grammar, translation, pronunciation, dictoglosses, and vocabulary. This result indicates multiple media for languaging [ 3 ] and shows writing to be central in SLA studies. Third, languaging was associated with several factors, including corrective feedback, learning style, language proficiency, and learning environment. These findings are evident in the multidimensional features of the factors influencing the effects of languaging in L2 classes. Of these factors, corrective feedback was the most frequently examined, implying that languaging might be an alternative perspective for studies on corrective feedback. As for the relatively less-addressed factors, such as learning environment, more effort is suggested in situating languaging in technology-mediated settings [ [18] , [56] ]. Finally, based on the three methods of languaging integration, a four-step model of languaging integration is proposed that should serve as a reference point for future research on languaging in L2 classes.

The most valuable benefit of language learning research lies in the use of research results to innovate teaching practices and increase learning efficiency [ 54 ]. Apart from its theoretical implications, this review holds pedagogical implications for learners and teachers. It is important for learners to improve their language proficiency, since it tends to influence the effect of languaging. It is also essential for learners to strengthen their awareness of self- and other-regulation in relation to their peers and teachers [ 51 ]. Interactions with peers and teachers can help learners benefit from languaging [ 26 ]. As for the implications for teachers, it is advisable that they improve their teaching quality in the following ways. Teachers are advised to design languaging tasks suitable for learners’ current levels and in accordance with their interests. Teachers may also organise languaging activities through oral, written, network and other channels to provide students with languaging opportunities. Given that languaging is sometimes challenging for some learners, it is also necessary for teachers to scaffold learners when conducting languaging activities, which might help learners reflect on their own learning and improve their independent learning abilities [ 18 ].

6.3. Limitations

This study has several limitations. For example, this study may not have included all the related publications because of limited access to library resources. Second, learner perceptions of languaging may vary from context to context. Finally, there may be other ways to integrate languaging into L2 classes through the development of teaching and research methodologies. Therefore, languaging warrants further investigation. Specifically, future research should explore the languaging of different subjects in various contexts, as well as learners’ perceived attitudes towards languaging.

Author contribution statement

All authors listed have significantly contributed to the development and the writing of this article.

Funding statement

This work was funded by the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation, the Ministry of Education of China (grant number: 22YJA740016), the Key Project of Hubei Provincial Department of Education Philosophy and Social Science Research Fund (No. 21ZD051), and the Teaching and Research Fund of Hubei University of Technology (No. Xiao2022018).

Data availability statement

Declaration of competing interest.

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Appendix A Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16300 .

Appendix A. Supplementary data

The following is the Supplementary data to this article:

Correction: The Impact of Typical School Provision of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sports on Adolescent Physical Health: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis

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• Padraic Rocliffe   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7216-4504 1 , 6 ,
• Miguel Angel Tapia-Serrano 2 ,
• Luis Garcia-Gonzalez 2 ,
• Manolis Adamakis 3 ,
• Liam Walsh 1 ,
• Aine Bannon 1 ,
• Emily Mulhall 1 ,
• Ian Sherwin 1 ,
• Brendan T.O’ Keeffe 1 ,
• Patricia Mannix-McNamara 4 , 5 &
• Ciaran MacDonncha 1  

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The Original Article was published on 17 January 2024

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Correction: Adolescent Research Review

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-023-00231-x

In this article, the entries in Table 3 under the columns ‘School Level, Pupils Age, School Number, Total Students, Aim’, ‘PE, PA, Sport Exposure’, ‘Outcome Measure, Instrument, Study Duration’, ‘Summary Result’, ‘Main Reported Effects, Impact Summary’ and ‘Conclusion/Nuance’ were not aligned properly. The entries are aligned correctly now.

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Rocliffe, P., Tapia-Serrano, M.A., Garcia-Gonzalez, L. et al. Correction: The Impact of Typical School Provision of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sports on Adolescent Physical Health: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis. Adolescent Res Rev (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-024-00236-0

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