From ICT to artificial intelligence: The evolution of TPACK research in language education

Abstract

The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed technology integration practices in language education and expanded the development of the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. This study aims to analyze the evolution of TPACK research in language education from ICT-oriented pedagogy toward AI-supported learning environments through a bibliometric perspective. The data were retrieved from Google Scholar using Publish or Perish, covering publications from 2018 to 2026. From the initial search of 1000 documents, a final dataset of 720 relevant publications was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer. The findings revealed a substantial increase in publication trends, with the highest number of publications identified in 2025 (364 publications), while the lowest publication frequency appeared between 2018 and 2019, with only one publication each year, indicating the rapid expansion of AI-integrated language education research in recent years. Citation analysis showed that highly cited studies were dominated by themes related to generative AI, AI-assisted writing, automated feedback, and AI literacy. Furthermore, the co-occurrence, overlay, and density visualizations demonstrated that recent TPACK research increasingly emphasizes themes such as AI integration, generative AI, AI-TPACK, and intelligent language learning environments. Overall, the findings indicate that TPACK research has evolved significantly from conventional ICT integration toward AI-supported pedagogy in language and literacy learning contexts.