earticle

영어

This study explored research trends in the field of Korean elementary English education using bibliometric analysis. It analyzed bibliographic information from 2,383 papers (from 1994 to 2023) collected from the Korea Citation Index (KCI). Network analysis of authors, affiliated institutions, and co-occurring keywords was conducted using VOSviewer. The main findings are as follows. First, there has been an explosive increase in research papers on elementary English education since 2000, with over 100 papers being published annually since 2010. Second, the publications are spread across 115 journals, covering not only Primary English Education but also various other English and interdisciplinary education journals. Third, influential researchers in the field include Jeong-ryeol Kim, Sun-Ho Park, and Kyungja Ahn. Major educational institutions such as Seoul National University of Education, Gyeongin National University of Education, and Korea National University of Education, as well as the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, have been key research hubs. There has also been active collaboration between university researchers and elementary school teachers, indicating a strong partnership between academia and practice. Lastly, dominant research keywords include ‘school⋅teaching’, ‘effect⋅assessment’, ‘textbook⋅corpus’, ‘culture⋅ curriculum’, and ‘word⋅phonics’. The implications of these findings are discussed along with further work to be done.