Instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) has drawn much attention from both researchers and teaching practitioners and engendered a great amount of empirical research and discussion on the effectiveness of various instructional methods in L2 learning and how such instruction leads to L2 development. Similarly, given that instruction may be one critical channel through which L2 learners access target linguistic samples and knowledge in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, ISLA has also been researched as an area of particular importance for English learners in Korea. This article reviews the much-evidenced empirical trend for ISLA research reflected in empirical studies published in Studies in English Education. Of 165 articles published in the journal over the past 5 years (2015-2019), 48 articles were found to have explored various aspects of instruction-based learning, broadening the scope of research on ISLA. Each individual study was analyzed and illustrated in terms of research designs and diverse issues of L2 learning and learning processes. Obviously, ISLA merits much more empirical research in the years to come.