Journal of Language Research and Practice

A Study of Neologisms and Semantic Shifts in Queer Discourse: The Influence of Drag Lexicon in RuPaul’s Drag Race on Audience Language Practices in the Comments

2025-11-09T15:58:01+07:00

Language is a tool for communication and a medium that reflects creativity, identity,and community belonging. In the queer community, many specialized words have emerged,and media such as RuPaul’s Drag Race play a crucial role in spreading them to wider society.This study examines queer lexicons in three dimensions: neologisms, semantic shifts, andpolarity. The data come from RuPaul’s Drag Race Seasons 1, 2, 15, and 16, chosen to comparethe early and contemporary periods. The analysis combines quantitative methods, focusing onword frequency, with qualitative discourse analysis. The results reveal 166 queer lexicons: 35 neologisms from the early period and 60 from the contemporary period, as well as 30 semantic shifts from the early period and 51 from the contemporary period. The findings also show that positive polarity dominates in both periods, while negative polarity appears more often in the contemporary period but still less than positive polarity. These outcomes highlight the dynamic nature of queer language, which reflects identity, creativity, and the influence of mainstream media. The study also uses audience comments as supporting evidence of the spreading of queer language.

English Reading Comprehension Skills of Second-Year English Major Students

2025-11-17T10:55:18+07:00

Reading comprehension, in particular, plays an important role in students’ learning, especially for Thai learners of English as a foreign language. This study aimed to assess students’ English reading comprehension skills and to examine their self-assessment of those skills. This survey study focused on the English reading comprehension skills of second-year English major students at Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus. The participants were 148 students (69 regular program students and 79 special program students). The research instruments included an English reading comprehension test and a questionnaire. Participants were required to complete a reading comprehension test covering seven skills, consisting of two passages with 25 items. After that, they completed a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire assessing the same seven skills. The data obtained from both instruments were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The results showed that among seven reading comprehension skills assessed, the three highest-ranked English reading skills among the students were interpreting information skill (92.13%), identifying supporting details (90.30%), summarizing information (89.81%) whereas predicting information (75.09%) was lowest. In addition, based on students’ self-assessment, the top three English reading skills were identifying the main idea (M = 3.81), identifying supporting details (M = 3.77), understanding vocabulary (M = 3.75), but summarizing information is the lowest (M = 3.67). This research is beneficial in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of students’ reading comprehension skills.

Foreign Language Anxiety and Speaking Skills: A Study of Non-English Major Students in a Thai University Context

2026-03-29T21:37:52+07:00

English speaking anxiety is a significant barrier to language development among EFL learners, particularly those in non-English programs. This study examined the levels and sources of language anxiety related to speaking skills among non-English major students at a Thai university. Using a questionnaire-based design that incorporated both quantitative and qualitative data, data were collected from 66 first-year business program students enrolled in English for Everyday Life in the first semester of the 2025 academic year, selected through purposive sampling. The instrument comprised a closed-ended questionnaire adapted from the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS; Horwitz et al., 1986) and an open-ended questionnaire adapted from Paranuwat (2011). The findings revealed that students experienced a moderate level of speaking anxiety (M = 3.19). Among the three FLCAS components, communication apprehension was the most prominent. Qualitatively, the primary sources of anxiety were low self-perception of ability and classroom practices, followed by fear of negative feedback and the role of teachers. These findings highlight the need for anxiety-aware pedagogical approaches in EFL classrooms, particularly for non-English major students.

An Analysis of Translation Procedures of Thai Cultural Terms in English Subtitles: : A Case Study of Mae Yua (The Empress of Ayodhaya)

2026-04-15T13:40:01+07:00

This study aimed to analyze the translation procedures used in translating cultural terms in the subtitles of Mae Yua (The Empress of Ayodhaya). The analysis of cultural categories and the translation procedures used in this study was based on Newmark (1988). A total of 338 cultural terms were identified. Material culture was the most frequently found with 33.14%, followed by Social culture with 30.18%, Organization, etc. with 27.22%, Gestures and habits with 6.8%, and Ecology with 2.66%, respectively. The results of the analysis of translation procedures showed that the Literal Translation procedure was the most frequently used with 44.97%, followed by Neutralization with 22.19%, Transference with 16.27%, Couplet with 9.76%, Deletion with 2.37%, Paraphrase with 2.37%, Cultural Equivalent with 1.48%, and others with 0.59%, respectively. In addition, the analysis of the overall translation tendency is based on the concepts of Foreignization and Domestication as proposed by Venuti (as cited in Munday, 2016). The study found that Foreignization at 69.50% was the most used strategy, followed by Domestication at 28.40%. This suggests that the translator was more inclined toward Foreignization than Domestication to preserve the foreignness of the cultural terms in the drama.

Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes and Satisfaction in Choosing English Learning Applications

2026-01-27T10:04:33+07:00

This study aimed to investigate undergraduate students’ attitudes and satisfaction toward English learning applications and to examine how these factors influence their application selection. The participants consisted of 67 fourth-year English major students at a university in Thailand. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire comprising Likert-scale items and open-ended questions. The findings revealed that English structure was the most frequently reported learning difficulty among the participants. Google Translate was the most commonly selected application, followed by Grammarly and other applications. Overall, the participants demonstrated positive attitudes and a high level of satisfaction toward English learning applications. The results further indicated that students' attitudes and satisfaction appeared to play a role in their application selection, although some students selected applications that were not fully aligned with their learning problems. These findings are exploratory in nature, and the relationships between attitudes, satisfaction, and application selection warrant further investigation through inferential analysis. These findings highlight the role of learners’ perceptions and experiences in shaping application selection in technology-enhanced language learning contexts and provide practical implications for the effective use of English learning applications.