叙事探究在外语教育领域得到越来越广泛的运用。本文以web of science核心合集文献为依据，梳理了该领域叙事探究的理论视角、研究主题、数据收集和分析方法。研究发现，研究者多采用实践共同体理论和定位理论，侧重身份、动机等主题；数据收集以多渠道数据、历时数据、互动中的叙事、叙事框架和多模态叙事等方式为主；数据分析常采用主题分析、内容分析、话语分析和叙事性分析。最后，对叙事探究在外语教育研究领域的未来发展给出了建议。

Educational research in English-as-a-second-language (ESL) or English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL)contexts has seen increasing adoption of narrative inquiry. Based on the literature retrieved from Web of Science core collection, the study presented an overview of this field in terms of its theoretical perspectives, research topics, as well as methods for data collection and data analysis. It is found that this field has frequently explored such topics as identity and motivation from a variety of theories, positioning theory and community of practice, in particular. Besides, multiple-channel sources, longitudinal data, narratives-in-action, narrative frames and multimodality narratives are mainly used for data collection while thematic analysis, content analysis, discourse analysis and narrative analysis are typically employed for data analysis. Finally, suggestions are outlined for future research.