A study of Thai subtitles in English movies for English language learners

Abstract

DVD movies have played a significant role in people's life as they are considered a cheap and easily available form of entertainment, and a large number of ESL and EFL learners have made use of DVD movies as a means to enhance their language acquisition, both in and outside classrooms. The present study examined errors in Thai subtitles of English movies shown in DVDs with an aim to subsequently develop course materials for Thai learners of English as a foreign language. The sample of the study consisted of nine top three Box Office movies with highest gross income between 2005 and 2007, indicating their popularity and ability to reach wide audiences. The Schemes of error classification proposed by Dulay et al. (1982), Khaourai (2002), and Suwanttananand et al. (2005) were employed to analyze errors found in the subtitles of the selected English language movies, divided into three categories of lexical errors, semantic errors, and pragmatic errors. The study findings revealed that there were not many errors in Thai subtitles. Among the errors that were found, semantic errors occurred most often, followed by pragmatic errors and lexical errors, respectively. A small number of errors found reflected a high quality of Thai subtitles in English movies which can be used as an effective tool in language teaching, The errors that were found were then used to develop a variety of English language teaching and learning materials with a focus on translation of verbs, adjectives, and sentences, to enable Thai language learners to practice English language skills to become more successful users of the language.