Abstract
Qualitative narratives surrounding French language didactics offer substantial historical grounding. However, the structural evolution of this domain remains empirically under-investigated. To interrogate these disciplinary shifts, the present study adopts a bibliometric approach anchored in the synthetic knowledge synthesis (SKS) framework, analyzing 503 articles published in
Le français aujourd’hui
(2007–2023) through keyword co-occurrence, hierarchical clustering, and citation metrics. Results suggest that the field tends to exhibit a sedimentary layering of methodologies, rather than a linear paradigm replacement. The historical triad (i.e., literature, reading, and writing) consistently constitutes the disciplinary bedrock, even as it is reconfigured to absorb complex techno-pedagogical demands and accommodate a growing turn toward plurilingualism. Oral didactics, nevertheless, tends to be marginalized despite ongoing communicative shifts, a pattern attributable in part to entrenched institutional graphocentrism and persistent methodological bottlenecks. Citation data further support the field’s progressive decoupling from applied linguistics, pointing toward its consolidation as an autonomous, inclusively oriented discipline. French didactics, consequently, appears to maintain a distinctly localized resilience, negotiating the globalized pressures of superdiversity while sustaining its foundational humanist rationale. By charting these bibliometric dynamics, this study maps the discipline’s current state and emergent intellectual horizons.