The purpose of this paper is to review the outcomes of the Korean vocabulary education studies and suggest the future direction in the vocabulary education research. This paper first attempts to analyse previous studies in the Korean education by subject and chronological order and also investigate trends in research methodology. To this end, this paper first has examined the history of Korean vocabulary education and analysed foreign and domestic vocabulary education studies and their research methodology. A meta-analysis has been conducted on foreign studies researching vocabulary education history. As for domestic studies, this paper has reviewed 785 Korean education major journals and dissertation papers and conducted an analysis according to the subject and the detailed area. This paper finds that the vocabulary education research accounts for large proportion of previous studies. The domestic research has shown continued interest in vocabulary studies from the beginning up to recent studies while overseas research has recently raised its interest in this area. In regards to contents, foreign research has put an emphasis on issue-specific studies in vocabulary learning and teaching whereas the domestic research has focused on teaching database construction and learners’ vocabulary knowledge based on the existing lexicology area. As a result, the educational research has been made less domestically compared to the overseas research. In terms of research methodology, literature reviews have accounted for major proportion and, corpus studies and experimental studies have followed respectively. Relative to foreign research, domestic studies lack in experimental research and have also shown weakness in multiple rest experimental study method. This paper may contribute to future vocabulary education in that it reviews research achievements in vocabulary education both home and abroad, points out methodological problems and explore the future direction of vocabulary education. (Yonsei University)