This study aims at exploring the status and future task of the qualitative research in the department of Korean language Education. The research is essential for raising an understanding of a process of learners\' language use and an educational phenomenon in the department, and for analyzing the conversation in Korean class and evaluating the curriculum for the department. A positive, quantitative approach formed the mainstream of American research of vernacular education before the 1980s, while a phenomenological, qualitative approach formed its mainstream after the 1980s, which is read as a change according to the shift of American sociocultural reality and educational paradigm. A full-scale qualitative research in the department of Korean language Education has been made since the latter half of the 1990s. The qualitative research in the meantime is broadly classified into a study on the characteristics of the conversation in Korean class, a study on the phenomenological description about the teaching-learning process in the department of Korean language, and a study on the aspect in which the curriculum of the department is carried out. The department of Korean language Education has only a short history of qualitative research and should be improved much in the aspect of diversifying or deepening research subject or method. In particular, diversity should go with accuracy in the method, a method of arranging and describing research should be diversified, and action research should be made more active.