<![CDATA[As critical reading becomes increasingly important in English language teaching (ELT), it is attracting growing scholarly attention due to changing literacy needs in contemporary education. The present study aims to trace the evolution of critical reading research in ELT by means of a bibliometric analysis of 251 Scopus-indexed articles published from 2015 to 2025. The PRISMA procedure was followed and Biblioshiny and VOSviewer were used to analyze publication trends, authorship patterns, institutional contributions, citation impact and thematic developments. The results revealed a general increase in publication output over the decade, with a peak in 2024, pointing to growing academic interest in the field. Analyses of author productivity and co-authorship revealed distributed patterns of scholastic contribution by several groups of researchers rather than a single dominant community. The institutional analysis shows that there has been support of critical reading research in different academic environments in different geographical locations. The citation analysis revealed the most important studies on reading processes, instructional practices, translanguaging, biliteracy, and language policy. Keyword analysis also showed a shift of research interest from reading comprehension to critical thinking, academic literacy, digital literacy, critical discourse analysis and critical pedagogy. The findings provide a broad overview of the intellectual development and thematic evolution of critical reading research in ELT, and of the increasing importance of critical reading as a pillar of contemporary literacy and language education.]]>
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