The purpose of this paper is to examine teaching culture in Korean elementary English classrooms from a critical point of view based on the results of the research analysis and to suggest an appropriate direction for the elementary English language and culture education. To this end, one hundred and thirty two research papers published from 1997 to 2009 on teaching culture in elementary school English classes were analyzed by the publishing year and the contents. It was found out that 30(22.7%), 78(59.1%), and 24(18.2%) papers were published during the 6th, 7th, and further revision periods of national curriculum respectively. The largest number of papers were about culture teaching programs(33%), teaching material analysis(39%) and the effects of teaching culture(34%) in each of the three periods. The results show that there is a gap between curriculum rhetoric and the classroom reality and that more cultural component needs to be incorporated in teaching English language.