A Study on Enhancing Global Competence Through Screen English

1. Global Competence

The National Education Association’s 2010 announcement highlights the importance of preparing students to engage with a world that is increasingly interconnected and diverse. By identifying this as both a challenge and opportunity, the NEA is acknowledging that global issues—like climate change, economic inequality, and cultural conflicts—are complex and require new kinds of skills and knowledge. Preparing students to address and understand these issues means equipping them with global competence. This includes teaching them to understand different perspectives, communicate effectively across cultures, think critically about world problems, and engage as informed, responsible global citizens. This preparation is vital because it enables young people to adapt to a world that is rapidly evolving, where they will likely interact with diverse populations and face global challenges that require collaborative, innovative solutions (Bermúdez-Martínez & Iñesta-Mena, 2023). Here global competence requires understanding. Williams-Gualandi (2015) mentions that intercultural understanding—the ability to recognize, respect, and understand different cultural perspectives and responses—has become a priority in education and research. This growing focus is largely due to two major trends: increased international mobility and the impact of globalization.

With people moving more frequently across borders, whether for work, study, or other reasons, interactions between individuals from different cultures are more common. Additionally, globalization has brought diverse cultures into closer contact even within local communities. As a result, developing an understanding of how different cultures respond to various human experiences—such as communication, social norms, education, and work—has become essential. Intercultural understanding helps students and individuals navigate these differences respectfully and effectively, fostering positive interactions in increasingly diverse societies.

In times like these, the instructor’s perception of global competence is essential for developing global competence in the EFL classroom. Yaccob et al. (2022) mention that the instructors’ perceptions on global competence refer to how teachers understand, interpret, and value the concept of global competence within their teaching practice. They say that the following aspects are essential: meaning of global competence in the context of education, importance of global competence in language teaching and strategies for integrating global competence into their lessons.

Divéki (2022) emphasizes that for teacher trainees to foster globally competent students, their own training must prioritize global perspectives and equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to teach these concepts effectively. He continues to stress that teacher trainees must be equipped not only with pedagogical skills but also with the mindset of active global citizenship.

From the students’ perspective, conversation among people is very important for EFL students to become global thinkers. Talking to others, especially those from different cultures and backgrounds, helps students. So, it’s about thinking beyond your own country, understanding the world, and working together to solve big problems that affect everyone. Better conversations among students can be facilitated through movies which can bring the real world to classroom (Nguyen, 2017).

2. Analyzing Movies Using Discourse and Conversation Analysis

Social scientists often see conversation analysis (CA) and discourse analysis (DA) as related approaches because both focus on understanding how people use language in social contexts. They both aim to analyze language in terms of how it functions and how it creates meaning for people in specific situations. In both CA and DA, the emphasis is on exploring how language is used to accomplish things in interactions, such as making sense of experiences, sharing information, building relationships, or asserting identity. This functional approach goes beyond just analyzing the structure of language (like grammar or syntax) and focuses on how language operates within social interactions to help people make sense of their world (Wooffitt, 2005). However, they are still not the same.

First, this study will examine the difference between discourse analysis and conversation analysis. While DA explores language in a broad range of contexts, CA zooms in on the detailed structure of spoken conversation to understand how people create meaning in real-time exchanges (Hardika et al., 2022). Since DA has such a broad scope, CA is more convenient for analysis in classroom settings. This could be one reason why literature that analyzes films often uses CA.

As mentioned earlier, using movies to develop EFL learners’ global competence is an excellent approach. Movies offer rich cultural, social, and linguistic contexts that can help learners build a deeper understanding of different perspectives, values, and global issues.

A movie is a story told through fiction, either in prose or verse, and it is a creative work of imagination. It can also serve as a form of popular entertainment, often produced and promoted by a large commercial studio with the involvement of skilled technicians. Movies are full of dialogues, which are conversations between two participants. Conversation is a form of cooperative activity involving communicative interaction, making it a good way to learn what conversation is (Maharani & Cahyono, 2022).

Chepinchikj and Thompson (2016) analyzed cinematic discourse through conversation analysis. They examined specific aspects of spoken interaction in film dialogues from three Woody Allen films: Husbands and Wives (Allen, 1992), Melinda and Melinda (Allen, 2004), and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (Allen, 2010). Once transcribed, the dialogues were analyzed based on four main features: turn-taking, adjacency pairs, gaps, and overlaps. The findings suggested that these conventional features were present and purposefully used in the film dialogues. In other words, the characters were designed to follow certain conversational patterns that would reflect real-life interaction, adding depth to their dialogues. The findings also indicated that the use of these features made the dialogue feel natural and meaningful, as though they mirror real human interactions.

Arif and Raihana (2023) examine three aspects of conversation—turn-taking, adjacency pairs, and sequence— using a descriptive qualitative method. The data analyzed come from both the video and script of Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (Darnell et al., 2012) chosen for its relatable, everyday language and its friendship theme. The study found 92 instances of conversation patterns, including 4 turn-takings, 9 interruptions, 17 overlaps, 4 attributable silences, 34 preferred responses, and 19 dispreferred responses. The most common pattern observed was preferred responses, where listeners responded in agreement with the speaker’s intentions.

3. Genuine Communication and Simulated Communication

Genuine goal-oriented communication refers to real-life interactions where the primary goal is to achieve a specific outcome, and the use of language is a tool to accomplish that task. It is essential for developing real-world fluency and adaptability. Learners become more confident when navigating unscripted situations and interacting with native speakers, gaining practical skills that transfer directly to daily life. That’s why communicative goals significantly influence the process of language learning (Zhu et al., 2022).

Classroom communication often lacks real-life consequences, which makes it different from genuine, goal-oriented communication outside of the classroom. In real-world communication, if you fail to convey your message or understand someone else, there are immediate consequences—such as misunderstanding, failure to complete a task, or social repercussions. In the classroom, even though activities are designed to simulate goal-oriented communication (like role-plays or task-based activities), students know that there’s no significant loss or penalty if they don’t succeed. This can make classroom communication feel less authentic, and it doesn’t fully mimic the pressure or stakes of real-life interactions. That is why class communication often can’t be considered as crucial for developing true communicative competence. Goldreich et al. (2011) implies classroom communication might be far from genuine communication as follows:

We put forward a general theory of goal-oriented communication, where communication is not an end in itself, but rather a means to achieving some goals of the communicating parties. Focusing on goals provides a framework for addressing the problem of potential “misunderstanding” during communication, where the misunderstanding arises from lack of initial agreement on what protocol and/or language is being used in communication (p. 299).

According to them, communication is not just about talking for the sake of it, but it’s a way for people to achieve certain goals. For example, when people communicate, they’re usually trying to do something—maybe we want to ask for help, share information, or make plans. So, the goal of the conversation is what really matters, not just the act of talking. In goal-setting theory, it focuses on how setting clear, specific goals can drive motivation and guide behavior. This theory emphasizes the importance of having concrete objectives that people work towards, which is very similar to the idea of goal-oriented communication—where the purpose of communication is to achieve specific outcomes or accomplish tasks. In goal-setting theory, the goals themselves guide the actions, much like in goaloriented communication, where the goal of the conversation directs how people communicate (Lee & Bong, 2019).

Nonetheless, some researches emphasize simulated communication is considered as positive. They say that simulation is when people are put in made-up situations that are similar to real-life scenarios. This helps them practice, train, or see how well they perform certain tasks. It's a way of learning by doing things. For students, it’s a safe environment where they can practice handling tasks and problems they might face in real-life jobs. In these simulated situations, they can make mistakes and learn from them without any real consequences. The focus isn’t on whether the communication is “successful” or “unsuccessful.” Instead, the important part is that students get a chance to practice and gain experience. This helps them learn how to deal with difficulties that might come up in real-life professional communication (Hallinger & Wang, 2020; Koukourikos et al., 2021; Zvarych et al., 2023).

However, emotional engagement is a crucial part of learning because when students feel connected to a task or situation, they often learn more deeply and retain information better. In many simulations, the artificial setting might limit the emotional involvement since participants know it’s not a real situation, which can reduce the intensity of their reactions or investment in the outcome. This can be a weak point if the goal is to replicate not just the actions of a real-world scenario but also the emotional complexities people face in those situations.

1. Goal

Global competence is a skill that can be developed through conversation. This experiment aims to analyze movie dialogues to illuminate the essence of conversation and identify the key activities within it. Conversation is a purposeful activity. Students will observe the conversational strategies employed by characters in the film to achieve their goals. Since conversation involves efforts to understand others and to help others understand, the study will also examine how the characters demonstrate their ability to connect with one another. Additionally, the experiment will explore how students acquire the language used for these conversational strategies.

2. Participants

The subjects of the study are 57 students enrolled in a regular course at a university in Seoul. A pre-test was omitted as it could not be conducted with students’ consent, and because it cannot be conducted in a regular course, the posttest will be represented by the final exam scores. The regular course is a general education subject available to all grade levels.

3. Material

The material used in this experiment is Woody Allen’s A Rainy Day in New York (Allen, 2019). This work allows viewers to evaluate the characters, and the director remains completely non-judgmental. If the director were to be judgmental, it could hinder students' ability to analyze the characters’ personalities and attitudes, making it unsuitable as experimental material. Therefore, it is considered appropriate for this study.

4. Procedure

This experiment was conducted as part of a regular semester course. It consists of a total of 14 sessions, with each session lasting 3 hours. The procedure of a single session is repeated across all 14 sessions. The procedure described for one session represents the entire experiment.

First, the instructor selects scenes of dialogue between characters from the movie. Focusing on the main character, Gatsby, the instructor introduces conversations between Gatsby and other characters to the students. Second, in the first class, the instructor demonstrates how to analyze the dialogue. Third, starting from the second session, students conduct the analysis themselves, and once they have completed it, the instructor supplements their work to refine the analysis. Fourth, after the 14 sessions are completed, students take a test and participate in a survey. The reason for conducting the survey was the judgment that, even if students did not perform well on the written test, it would be fair to give them an opportunity to express their opinions.

5. Evaluation

The students take a 30-item written test. For each question, a complete answer earns 1 point, a partially correct answer earns half a point, and an incorrect answer receives 0 points. The instructor analyzes each question in detail, noting how many students answered correctly or incorrectly. This will be expressed as a percentage, and the relationship between this figure and the overall average will be examined. In addition to the written test, a survey will also be conducted. Even if students do not fully demonstrate their abilities on the written test, the survey will provide them with an opportunity to show their potential skills.

1. Types of Question Items

Table 1 shows four different types of question items. The first one is about communicative strategies which are primary concerns in this experiment (see Appendix)¹. Eleven items belong here. The second one is about movie storyline which can help to understand communicative strategies. Fourteen items belong here. The third one is salience. In this experiment, language knowledge is not explicitly instructed. Nonetheless whether they can pick up some language items will be observed. Three items belong to this type. The last one is composition. In this type, correct grammar is not emphasized. We will investigate whether the students can use proper phrases or words to accomplish communicative goals. Only two items are provided to the students.

Table 1.

Distribution of 30 Question Items

2. Mean

The 57 students took a test consisting of 30 items. Among these 30 items, 11 items were related to the conversation strategies (CSs) learned in class, and there were also 23 items that assessed how CSs impacted their language learning. The results are presented in Table 2.

Table 2.

Overall Average

Thirty items were administered to the students. Their mean score was 60%. They passed over half of total items slightly. The scores were analyzed according to the four types.

3. Communicative Strategies (CSs)

CSs were divided into 6 categories^2,: topic nomination, topic change, drawing people in, insinuation, self-defense, and topic termination. It was investigated whether the students would prefer which category. The result was presented in Table 3.

Table 3.

Communicative Strategies

Among six categories, three categories showed the students’ preference. Perfect scores were high in two questions of Topic change (e.g., 63% and 65%), in one of four questions of Drawing people in (e.g., 65%), and in one of two questions of Insinuation (e.g., 65%). Their percentages were higher than total mean 60%.

The worst ratio was in Drawing people in. The students received 0 points on three of four questions of Drawing people in (e.g., 53%, 74%, and 68%), on one of two questions of Insinuation (e.g., 51%) and on Topic termination (54%). Among 0.5 points, Topic nomination was high (e.g., 51%).

Summing up, about half students received 0.5 points on Topic nomination. More than half students received perfect scores on Topic change. Many students were worse on Drawing people in. On Insinuation, more than half students received perfect scores and around half students scored zero on another question. On Self-defense, half students perfect scores and half students received a score of 0 on Topic termination. Among six categories, many students answered four categories well and they were unable to adapt to two categories. In this regard, it is believed the students have effectively absorbed the conversation strategies.

4. Interest in the Movie Content

If students have focused on studying communicative strategies, it’s expected that they’ll naturally remember various aspects of the movie content. For example, they’ll retain knowledge about elements like the setting, environment, and characters personalities. And the various elements of movie content were divided into five categories^4,: world knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, comparison, content itself, and inference. The following Table 4 shows the extent of students’ interest and ability in each of the five categories.

Table 4.

Various Aspects of the Movie Content

First, world knowledge might not be directly linked to language skills but instead reflects our broader understanding of the world (Nordquist, 2020). Although it is an important clue for understanding content, students generally show little interest in it, often overlooking the vocabulary related to this area. In the world knowledge category, five questions were given, with the percentage of students who answered each one correctly being 49%, 63%, 53%, 61%, and 82%, respectively. Although there is no objective standard, considering students’ general tendency to overlook world knowledge, these are thought to be good scores.

Second, in the vocabulary knowledge category, two questions were given. The results could be interpreted in different ways, depending on one’s perspective. Although the percentages of fully correct answers (40% and 35%) weren’t high, considering the rate of partially correct answers, the performance was fairly good. Specifically, for question 7, combining the 40% who answered it completely correctly with the 34% who answered it partially correctly gives a total of 74%. For question 15, combining the 35% who answered it completely correctly with the 37% who answered it partially correctly results in a total of 72%.

The third category was comparison which involves examining similarities and differences, which helps students better understand themes, character motivations, cultural contexts, and narrative structure. Using comparison as a reading strategy can deepen comprehension and foster interpretive skills. Two questions were given. The percentage of students who answered completely incorrectly was 21% and 15%, but this outcome was unavoidable. There would always be students who would not be interested in studying, and it would not be possible to change their minds immediately. Excluding these students, combining the percentage of those who answered completely correctly (68% and 61%) with those who answered partially correctly (11% and 24%) resulted in totals of 79% and 85%. This could be interpreted as quite a good result.

The fourth category was the movie content itself. The results were somewhat disappointing, as the percentage of students who partially answered correctly (36%) was higher than those who answered completely correctly (32%). Although only one question was given, limiting reliability, the unexpectedly low interest in the movie content has significant implications for instructors.

The fifth category was inference, which is essential for understanding movie content. Much of a film’s depth often comes from implied meanings, character motivations, and thematic elements that aren’t explicitly stated. Four questions were given here. Combining correct answers with partially correct answers, their percentage was not bad. However, the percentage of incorrect answers was unexpectedly high, which seems to indicate that inference is a challenging skill.

In summary, when focusing on communicative strategies, students generally showed a fair level of interest in world knowledge, and their vocabulary knowledge was also reasonably strong. They performed adequately in comparison as well. However, a notable number of students showed surprisingly little interest in the movie content, and although many performed well in inference, a significant number struggled with this skill. Based on these figures, the final assessment suggests that focusing on communicative strategies helps foster interest in the five categories, that is, in supplementary knowledge areas.

5. Salience: Verb, Adverb, and Noun

This study aims to analyze movie dialogues to learn both the nature and function of conversation, as well as related language items. For this purpose, examining salience is necessary, focusing on parts of speech (verbs, adverbs, and nouns)⁵. Three questions were given. Each question required different parts of speech.

Looking at Table 5, it can be seen that verbs achieved an impressive 95% accuracy rate, indicating that students were particularly sensitive to the salience of verbs. While it is acknowledged that conclusions cannot be definitively drawn from a single item, nouns and, lastly, adverbs also performed generally well, with over half of students showing sensitivity to salience in these categories. From this perspective, it can be said that the instruction of communication strategies (CSs) contributes significantly to enhancing salience in language learning.

Table 5.

Salience of Verbs, Adverbs, and Nouns

However, the number of students who did not correctly identify the salience in nouns and adverbs was 37 in total, with 19 and 18 students for each category, respectively, accounting for 34% and 32%. This suggests that the salience activity seems to divide students in terms of sensitivity. This observation may offer insight into which parts of speech students respond to more keenly. Generally, nouns refer to names or objects, which might require some cultural or environmental interest, while adverbs play a smaller grammatical role within sentences and might have been overlooked as a result.

In summary, it can be said that CS instruction and activities have been effective in enhancing global competence for the majority of students. However, for students who lack interest in the film content, CS instruction was not particularly effective in developing global competence.

6. Composition: World Knowledge and Linguistic Knowledge

The final test was a writing test with two questions assessing content and language. The first question assessed whether students accurately remembered vocabulary related to world knowledge. If they used world knowledge vocabulary correctly, grammatical errors in sentence construction were overlooked. The second question consisted of sentences without world knowledge vocabulary. In this case, if students accurately remembered the multiword phrases, expressions, or conventional phrases used in the sentences, it was considered correct. Similarly, grammatical errors in sentence construction were disregarded in this question. The results were shown in Table 6.

Table 6.

Result of Writing Test

In the world knowledge sentence, the correct answers were “drinks” and “weed.” The number of students who answered entirely correctly was 11, making up 20% of the group, while 23 students (40%) got half of the answer correct. However, 23 students—also 40%—answered completely incorrectly. These figures suggest that more emphasis on world knowledge in classroom CS lectures is needed, as global competence is closely related to world knowledge.

In the linguistic knowledge sentence, the correct answers were “deserve” and “than I am.” Although the former isn’t a phrase, it’s a sophisticated word, and the latter is also a refined expression. Only 8 students (14%) answered entirely correctly, and just 5 students (9%) got half of the answer correct. However, 44 students, making up 77%, answered completely incorrectly, indicating an urgent need for education on linguistic knowledge vocabulary.

Of course, it isn’t necessary to interpret these results as an indication that CS education was ineffective. In this experiment, CS education was extensive, but there wasn’t enough time to emphasize detailed aspects, which likely explains these outcomes.

7. Result of Questionnaire About Global Competence

After the experiment, a survey was conducted with the students as shown in Table 7. Out of 57 students, 48 (84%) participated in the survey^6,. There were a total of 6 survey questions, each rated on a scale of 10 points⁷. Due to space limitations, only survey questions 3, 5, and 6 will be explained.

Table 7.

Six Questionnaires

Understanding that one can find a job abroad is an accurate interpretation of globalization. While the presence of foreigners coming into the country to seek jobs is one aspect of globalization, going abroad and participating in globalization is also a valid interpretation of the concept. In Table 8, the results show that the highest number of students rated scale 10, with 15 students (31.3%). The second-highest rating was scale 8, with 9 students (18.8%) expressing a willingness to go abroad. However, the neutral attitudes represented by scales 5 and 6 were also notable, with 8 and 6 students respectively, totaling 14 students, which is similar to the number of students actively wanting to go abroad. Therefore, it is reasonable to view the prospect of finding a job abroad as being evenly split.

Table 8.

Finding a Job Abroad

In Table 9, the survey results regarding the use of films in this experiment showed overwhelming support from the students. The total number of students who either opposed (scales 1-4) or held a neutral position (scales 5-6) was only 5 (10%). This figure suggests that the incorporation of films in the class was well-received by the students. Although they may not have achieved high scores on the test, the lack of complaints about the use of film materials indicates that this experiment was effective.

Table 9.

The Relationship Between Film and Culture

In fact, using discourse analysis and conversation analysis might have been challenging for the students. However, surprisingly, in Table 10, there was only 1 student who opposed (scales 1-4), and just 3 students who held a neutral position (scales 5-6). The rest of the students were all in favor. The most astonishing finding was that 22 students rated scale 10, accounting for almost 50%. It can be said that the fact that the majority of students embraced and followed the approach used in this experimental class is its greatest achievement.

Table 10.

Uses of Discourse and Conversation Analysis

In summary, the responses in Question 2 in Table 7 indicated a willingness to learn foreign languages in the era of globalization, while Question 5 in Table 7 reflected positive feedback regarding the use of films as teaching materials. Finally, in Question 6 in Table 7, the students expressed complete trust in the discourse and conversation analysis methods used in the class, leading to the conclusion that this experiment was undoubtedly successful.