Trends in research of early childhood english education: Focus on domestic academic journal articles from 2000 to 2024

The purpose of this study is to analyze research trends in early childhood English education and to explore future research directions. To achieve this, 221 domestic academic journal articles, published between 2000 and 2024 were analyzed through the Research Information Sharing Service(RISS) based on five criteria: period, target group, methodology, topic, and the researcher’s field of expertise. Freguency and percentages were calculated for each criterion. The findings are as follows: First, research on early childhood English education has been consistently conducted from 2000 to July 2024, with the highest number of studies published between 2009 and 2017. Second, regarding target groups, most studies focused on children, followed by educator, general material subjects, Caregiver, other subjects, and digital educational media. Third, in terms of methodology, quantitative research was the most common followed by mixed-methods research, qualitative research, literature reviews, and other approaches. Fourth, concerning topics, studies on the current status and perceptions were the most frequent, followed by research on English education assessment, teaching and learning methods, teacher competence, English acquisition and related variables, and curriculum improvement. Fifth, analysis based on the researcher’s fields of expertise showed that research on early childhood English education was conducted more frequently in the field of early childhood education than English education. An examination of research topics by academic fields revealed that studies in the field of early childhood education primarily focused on the current status and perceptions, while studies in the field of English education mainly addressed teaching and learning methods and English education assessment. It is anticipated that these results will provide foundational data for future research in this field.