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โครงการรวบรวมและจัดทําวารสารอิเล็กทรอนิกส์ มหาวิทยาลัยเกษตรศาสตร์

A Study of Kasetsart University Students’ Comprehension of
English Idioms Appearing in Editorial Columns

in the Bangkok Post and the Nation

Supranee Puimom 1
Pataraporn Tapinta 2

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study aimed to (a) investigate the common linguistic types of English

idioms used in the editorial columns in the Bangkok Post and the Nation, (b) examine the
Thai readers’ abilities and perceptions in their comprehension of English idioms, and (c)

examine whether idiomatic expressions are the hindering factors for these Thai readers in their
comprehension of English editorial texts. The 43 participants in this study were English-major

students and non-major students. The instruments used in this study were a questionnaire,
three reading comprehension tests, and a semi-structured interview. The descriptive and

interpretative methods of content analysis (Berg, 2004; Coffey and Atkinson, 1996; Strauss
and Corbin, 1983) have been employed to explore and analyze the data.

The f ndings revealed that, f rst, semantically, literal idiom was the most common
type found (43%) in the editorial columns in the two English newspapers. Grammatically,

phrasal verb idiom was mostly common found (40%). Second, f ndings regarding the students’
abilities and perceptions indicated that students were able to comprehend texts the best

with literal idioms, the type with the most apparent meaning. In addition, regardless of the
linguistic features, idioms were better comprehended when contexts were provided, especially

when the language of the contexts included simple vocabulary and topics related to their
background knowledge. The students also revealed that their comprehension of idioms

was not directly connected with their awareness of the linguistic features of the idiomatic
expressions. To conclude, idioms did not appear to hinder the students’ comprehension of

the English editorial texts.

1 Graduate Student, English for Specif c Purposes Program, Graduate School, Kasetsart University
2 Assistant professor, Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Humanities, Kasetsart University