ABSTRACT
People from nearly every country are now learning computer programming, yet the majority of programming languages, libraries, documentation, and instructional materials are in English. What barriers do non-native English speakers face when learning from English-based resources? What desires do they have for improving instructional materials? We investigate these questions by deploying a survey to a programming education website and analyzing 840 responses spanning 86 countries and 74 native languages. We found that non-native English speakers faced barriers with reading instructional materials, technical communication, reading and writing code, and simultaneously learning English and programming. They wanted instructional materials to use simplified English without culturally-specific slang, to use more visuals and multimedia, to use more culturally-agnostic code examples, and to embed inline dictionaries. Programming also motivated some to learn English better and helped clarify logical thinking about natural languages. Based on these findings, we recommend learner-centered design improvements to programming-related instructional resources and tools to make them more accessible to people around the world.
- 2016. About Scratch. https://scratch.mit.edu/about. (2016). Accessed: 2016-09--19.Google Scholar
- 2017. Ethnologue: Languages of the World -- English. https://www.ethnologue.com/language/eng. (2017). Accessed: 2017-09-05.Google Scholar
- 2017. MOOC List -- Find MOOCs By Languages. https: //www.mooc-list.com/languages'static=true. (2017). Accessed: 2017-09-05.Google Scholar
- 2017. Simple English Wikipedia. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. (2017). Accessed: 2017-09--14.Google Scholar
- Christine Alvarado and Zachary Dodds. 2010. Women in CS: An Evaluation of Three Promising Practices. In Proceedings of the 41st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 57--61. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Apple. 2017. Introduction to Coding Guidelines for Cocoa. https://developer.apple.com/library/ content/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ CodingGuidelines/CodingGuidelines.html. (2017). Accessed: 2017-09--14.Google Scholar
- Computing Research Association. 2016. The Taulbee Survey. http://cra.org/resources/taulbee-survey/. (2016). Accessed: 2017-09--14.Google Scholar
- Jeff Atwood. 2009. Stack Overflow Blog: Non-English Question Policy. https://stackoverflow.blog/2009/ 07/23/non-english-question-policy/. (2009). Accessed: 2017-09--14.Google Scholar
- ISO 639--2 Registration Authority. 2017. Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages. https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639--2/. (2017). Accessed: 2017-09--14.Google Scholar
- Mordechai Ben-Ari and Jorma Sajaniemi. 2004. Roles of Variables As Seen by CS Educators. In Proceedings of the 9th Annual SIGCSE Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE '04). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 52--56. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Coursera blog. 2012. Coursera hits 1 million students across 196 countries. https://blog.coursera.org/ coursera-hits-1-million-students-across-196/. (2012). Accessed: 2017-09--14.Google Scholar
- Bo Brinkman and Amanda Diekman. 2016. Applying the Communal Goal Congruity Perspective to Enhance Diversity and Inclusion in Undergraduate Computing Degrees. In Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education (SIGCSE '16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 102--107. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Pauli Byckling, Petri Gerdt, and Jorma Sajaniemi. 2005. Roles of Variables in Object-oriented Programming. In Companion to the 20th Annual ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Object-oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA '05). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 350--355. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Carrie J. Cai, Philip J. Guo, James R. Glass, and Robert C. Miller. 2015. Wait-Learning: Leveraging Wait Time for Second Language Education. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 3701--3710. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Parmit K. Chilana, Rishabh Singh, and Philip J. Guo. 2016. Understanding Conversational Programmers: A Perspective from the Software Industry. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1462--1472. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Artem Chistyakov. 2017. The language of programming. https://temochka.com/blog/posts/2017/06/28/ the-language-of-programming.html. (Jun 2017).Google Scholar
- Patricia H. Collins. 2015. Intersectionality's Definitional Dilemmas. Annual Review of Sociology 41, 1 (2015), 1--20.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Juliet M. Corbin and Anselm L. Strauss. 2008. Basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. SAGE Publications, Inc.Google Scholar
- Sayamindu Dasgupta and Benjamin Mako Hill. 2017. Learning to Code in Localized Programming Languages. In Proceedings of the Fourth (2017) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S '17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 33--39. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Betsy DiSalvo, Mark Guzdial, Charles Meadows, Ken Perry, Tom McKlin, and Amy Bruckman. 2013. Workifying Games: Successfully Engaging African American Gamers with Computer Science. In Proceeding of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '13). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 317--322. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Betsy DiSalvo, Sarita Yardi, Mark Guzdial, Tom McKlin, Charles Meadows, Kenneth Perry, and Amy Bruckman. 2011. African American Men Constructing Computing Identity. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2967--2970. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Brian Dorn and Mark Guzdial. 2010. Learning on the Job: Characterizing the Programming Knowledge and Learning Strategies of Web Designers. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 703--712. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ian Drosos, Philip J. Guo, and Chris Parnin. 2017. HappyFace: Identifying and Predicting Frustrating Obstacles for Learning Programming at Scale. In Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) (VL/HCC '17).Google ScholarCross Ref
- Benedict Du Boulay. 1986. Some Difficulties of Learning to Program. Journal of Educational Computing Research 2, 1 (1986), 57--73.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Darren Edge, Kai-Yin Cheng, Michael Whitney, Yao Qian, Zhijie Yan, and Frank Soong. 2012. Tip Tap Tones: Mobile Microtraining of Mandarin Sounds. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Human-computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services Companion (MobileHCI '12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 215--216. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Darren Edge, Elly Searle, Kevin Chiu, Jing Zhao, and James A. Landay. 2011. MicroMandarin: Mobile Language Learning in Context. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 3169--3178. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Barbara Ericson, Shelly Engelman, Tom McKlin, and Ja'Quan Taylor. 2014. Project Rise Up 4 CS: Increasing the Number of Black Students Who Pass Advanced Placement CS A. In Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 439--444. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Barbara J. Ericson, Kantwon Rogers, Miranda Parker, Briana Morrison, and Mark Guzdial. 2016. Identifying Design Principles for CS Teacher Ebooks Through Design-Based Research. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER '16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 191--200. Google ScholarDigital Library
- National Science Foundation. 2017. Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC). https://www.nsf.gov/cise/bpc/. (2017). Accessed: 2017-09--14.Google Scholar
- Scott Freeman, Sarah L. Eddy, Miles McDonough, Michelle K. Smith, Nnadozie Okoroafor, Hannah Jordt, and Mary Pat Wenderoth. 2014. Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, 23 (2014), 8410--8415.Google ScholarCross Ref
- T. R. G. Green. 1989. Cognitive dimensions of notations. In People and Computers V. University Press, 443--460. Google ScholarDigital Library
- J.J. Gumperz and S.C. Levinson. 1996. Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Cambridge University Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=dPXvxgL2t1oCGoogle Scholar
- Philip J. Guo. 2013. Online Python Tutor: Embeddable Web-based Program Visualization for CS Education. In Proceeding of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '13). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 579--584. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Philip J. Guo. 2015. Codeopticon: Real-Time, One-To-Many Human Tutoring for Computer Programming. In Proceedings of the 28th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 599--608. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Philip J. Guo. 2017. Older Adults Learning Computer Programming: Motivations, Frustrations, and Design Opportunities. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7070--7083. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Philip J. Guo, Jeffery White, and Renan Zanelatto. 2015. Codechella: Multi-user program visualizations for real-time tutoring and collaborative learning. In Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) (VL/HCC '15). 79--87.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Mark Guzdial. 2015. Learner-Centered Design of Computing Education: Research on Computing for Everyone. Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics 8, 6 (2015), 1--165.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Scott Hanselman. 2008. Do you have to know English to be a Programmer? http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ DoYouHaveToKnowEnglishToBeAProgrammer.aspx. (Nov 2008).Google Scholar
- Masayuki Igawa, Dong Ma, and Samuel de Medeiros Queiroz. 2017. Non-native English speakers in Open Source communities: A True Story. (talk at Linux.conf.au). https://youtu.be/fsn6buk-BtE. (Jan 2017).Google Scholar
- Andy Kirkpatrick. 2011. Internationalization or Englishization: Medium of Instruction in Today's Universities. (01 2011).Google Scholar
- Andrew J. Ko, Brad A. Myers, and Htet Htet Aung. 2004. Six Learning Barriers in End-User Programming Systems. In Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) (VL/HCC '04). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Geza Kovacs and Robert C. Miller. 2014. Smart Subtitles for Vocabulary Learning. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 853--862. Google ScholarDigital Library
- J. Lave and E. Wenger. 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge University Press.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Ron Mace. 1997. What is universal design. The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University http://www.udinstitute.org/principles.php (1997).Google Scholar
- John H. Maloney, Kylie Peppler, Yasmin Kafai, Mitchel Resnick, and Natalie Rusk. 2008. Programming by Choice: Urban Youth Learning Programming with Scratch. In Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '08). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 367--371. Google ScholarDigital Library
- MaxMind. 2017. GeoLite2 Free Downloadable Databases. https://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geoip2/geolite2/. (2017). Accessed: 2017-09--14.Google Scholar
- Charlie McDowell, Linda Werner, Heather Bullock, and Julian Fernald. 2002. The Effects of Pair-programming on Performance in an Introductory Programming Course. In Proceedings of the 33rd SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '02). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 38--42. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Charlie McDowell, Linda Werner, Heather E. Bullock, and Julian Fernald. 2006. Pair Programming Improves Student Retention, Confidence, and Program Quality. Commun. ACM 49, 8 (Aug. 2006), 90--95. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Peeter Mehisto. 2012. Criteria for producing CLI learning material. Encuentro Journal (2012), 15--33.Google Scholar
- Subrata Kumar Mitra. 2010. Internationalization of Education in India: Emerging Trends and Strategies. Asian Social Science 6, 6 (2010).Google Scholar
- Brad A. Myers and Jeffrey Stylos. 2016. Improving API Usability. Commun. ACM 59, 6 (May 2016), 62--69. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jakob Nielsen. 1994. Usability Inspection Methods. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, USA, Chapter Heuristic Evaluation, 25--62. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=189200.189209 Google ScholarDigital Library
- The White House: Office of the Press Secretary. 2016. FACT SHEET: President Obama Announces Computer Science For All Initiative. (Jan 2016).Google Scholar
- Python official documentation. 2017a. PEP 8 -- Style Guide for Python Code. https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/. (2017). Accessed: 2017-09--14.Google Scholar
- Python official documentation. 2017b. sqlite3 DB-API 2.0 interface for SQLite databases. https://docs.python.org/3/library/sqlite3.html. (2017). Accessed: 2017-09--14.Google Scholar
- Yogendra Pal. 2016. A Framework for Scaffolding to Teach Programming to Vernacular Medium Learners. Ph.D. Dissertation. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.Google Scholar
- Yogendra Pal and Sridhar Iyer. 2012. Comparison of English Versus Hindi Medium Students for Programming Abilities Acquired Through Video-Based Instruction. In Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE Fourth International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E '12). IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA, 26--30. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Yogendra Pal and Sridhar Iyer. 2015a. Classroom Versus Screencast for Native Language Learners: Effect of Medium of Instruction on Knowledge of Programming. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE '15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 290--295. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Yogendra Pal and Sridhar Iyer. 2015b. Effect of Medium of Instruction on Programming Ability Acquired through Screencast. In 2015 International Conference on Learning and Teaching in Computing and Engineering. 17--21. Google ScholarDigital Library
- John F. Pane and Brad A. Myers. 1996. Usability Issues in the Design of Novice Programming Systems. Technical Report Carnegie Mellon University-CS-96--132. Carnegie Mellon University.Google Scholar
- Annie Murphy Paul. 2014. Bill Gates Is an Autodidact. You're Probably Not. Ed tech promoters need to understand how most of us learn. Slate (July 2014).Google Scholar
- Roy D. Pea. 1986. Language-Independent Conceptual "Bugs" in Novice Programming. Journal of Educational Computing Research 2, 1 (1986), 25--36.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Margaret Probyn. 2001. Teachers Voices: Teachers Reflections on Learning and Teaching through the Medium of English as an Additional Language in South Africa. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 4, 4 (2001), 249--266.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Katharina Reinecke and Abraham Bernstein. 2011. Improving Performance, Perceived Usability, and Aesthetics with Culturally Adaptive User Interfaces. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 18, 2, Article 8 (July 2011), 29 pages. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Katharina Reinecke and Krzysztof Z. Gajos. 2014. Quantifying Visual Preferences Around the World. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 11--20. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Gabriela T. Richard, Yasmin B. Kafai, Barrie Adleberg, and Orkan Telhan. 2015. StitchFest: Diversifying a College Hackathon to Broaden Participation and Perceptions in Computing. In Proceedings of the 46th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 114--119. Google ScholarDigital Library
- E. Soloway and James C. Spohrer. 1988. Studying the Novice Programmer. L. Erlbaum Associates Inc., Hillsdale, NJ, USA. Google Scholar
- Juha Sorva. 2012. Visual program simulation in introductory programming education (PhD dissertation). (2012). http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978--952--60--4626--6Google Scholar
- Juha Sorva. 2013. Notional Machines and Introductory Programming Education. Trans. Comput. Educ. 13, 2, Article 8 (July 2013), 31 pages. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Andreas Stefik and Susanna Siebert. 2013. An Empirical Investigation into Programming Language Syntax. Trans. Comput. Educ. 13, 4, Article 19 (Nov. 2013), 40 pages. Google ScholarDigital Library
- John Sweller. 1994. Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design. Learning and Instruction 4, 4 (1994), 295 -- 312.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Josie Taylor. 1990. Analysing novices analysing Prolog: what stories do novices tell themselves about Prolog? Instructional Science 19, 4 (01 Jul 1990), 283--309.Google Scholar
- Kyle Thayer and Andrew J. Ko. 2017. Barriers Faced by Coding Bootcamp Students. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER '17). ACM, New York, NY, USA. Google ScholarDigital Library
- J. Gregory Trafton and Brian J. Reiser. 1993. The Contributions of Studying Examples and Solving Problems to Skill Acquisition. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1017--1022.Google Scholar
- Judith Uchidiuno, Amy Ogan, Evelyn Yarzebinski, and Jessica Hammer. 2016. Understanding ESL Students' Motivations to Increase MOOC Accessibility. In Proceedings of the Third (2016) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S '16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 169--172. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Udacity. 2017. About Us. https://www.udacity.com/us. (2017). Accessed: 2017-09--14.Google Scholar
- Ashok Kumar Veerasamy and Anna Shillabeer. 2014. Teaching English Based Programming Courses to English Language Learners/Non-Native Speakers of English. International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research 70, 4 (2014), 17--22.Google Scholar
- Eric von Hippel. 1986. Lead Users: A Source of Novel Product Concepts. Manage. Sci. 32, 7 (July 1986), 791--805. Google ScholarDigital Library
- April Wang, Ryan Mitts, Philip J. Guo, and Parmit K. Chilana. 2018. Mismatch of Expectations: How Modern Learning Resources Fail Conversational Programmers. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wikipedia. 2017. Non-English-based programming languages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Non-English-based_programming_languages. (2017). Accessed: 2017-09-05.Google Scholar
- David Wolber, Hal Abelson, Ellen Spertus, and Liz Looney. 2011. App Inventor. O'Reilly Media, Inc.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Non-Native English Speakers Learning Computer Programming: Barriers, Desires, and Design Opportunities
Recommendations
Experiences of Non-Native English Speakers Learning Computer Science in a US University
SIGCSE '21: Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science EducationPrior work has shown that the adjustment challenges faced by international students in English-speaking universities are primarily attributable to English language proficiency and culture. Although studies in computing education have documented the ...
Phonetic realization of English lexical stress by native (L1) Bengali speakers compared to native (L1) English speakers
Compares the use of acoustic correlates in the production of English lexical stress by English and Bengali speakers.Bengali speakers able to approximate English like patterns of duration, intensity, F0 of stressed and unstressed vowels.It is very ...
English lexical stress produced by native (L1) Bengali speakers compared to native (L1) English speakers: an acoustic study
English lexical stress is acoustically related to combination of duration, intensity, fundamental frequency (F0) and vowel quality. Errors in any or all of these correlates could interfere with production of the stress contrast, but it is unknown which ...
Comments