This study aims to analyze research trends in Korean listening education for academic purposes, and suggest for future research directions. For this purpose, this study consulted a total of 57 pre-existing studies, including 32 articles in academic journals, 21 masters’ theses, and four doctoral dissertations conducted from 2005 through December 2021. The results are as follows: First, to examine the trends by year and type, comparing the 2010s to the 2000s when the research began. It was found that the number of studies greatly increased in the 2010s, and the frequency of studies in the 2020s tend to increase further. Second, as a result of an analysis of the trends by topic, it was found that teaching and learning methods were most studied and that there were also many studies concerned with strategy. However, there were relatively fewer studies on evaluation and curriculum. Third, this study aimed to examine trends by research method. It was found that the studies mostly employed the survey method, followed by quantitative mixed method and experimental approaches. Consequently, it was noted that the quantitative research methods were most widely used in the field of listening to Korean for academic purposes, and at the same time, since all studies that used mixed research methods employed another research method along with the survey method, it was found that the use of the survey method was the dominant type of quantitative research method.

The purposes of this study are to analyze high-frequency hedges in dissertations and provide basic data for Korean education for academic purposes. For these purposes, the investigator analyzed ‘-(으)ㄹ 수 있 다, -(으)ㄹ 것이다, and -(으)로 보이다’ in terms of frequency, distribution by the structure, and forms of combination in 50 dissertations for a master’s degree. The findings were as follows: first, ‘-(으)ㄹ 수 있다, -(으)ㄹ 것이다, and -(으)로 보이다’ were used total 3,880 times across all the dissertations. Of them, ‘-(으)ㄹ 수 있다’ were used 2,496 times, recording an overwhelmingly higher frequency than the others. Secondly, the study analyzed the frequency of hedges by the part in dissertations and found that hedges were most used in “Findings”(56.6%). Finally, there were standardized forms frequently combined with each hedge. ‘-(으)ㄹ 수 있다,’ for instance, was frequently used in the forms of ‘-(이)라고 할 수 있다/다고 할 수 있다,’ ‘-(으)ㅁ을 알 수 있다,’ and ‘-다는 것을 알 수 있다.’