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The Use of English Language to Teach CS1 to Non-Native English Speakers: Students Perspective

Authors:

Seán RussellAuthors Info & Claims

CompEd 2023: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Global Computing Education Vol 1

Pages 15 - 21

https://doi.org/10.1145/3576882.3617931

Published: 05 December 2023 Publication History

Abstract

The possible negative impact of using the English language in teaching different subjects to non-native English speakers has been the topic of many previous studies. However, not many researchers focused on the students' perspectives, especially CS1 students. In order to provide a better educational experience, the perspective of students on these topics should be known. In this research, a survey was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data from 393 non-native English-speaking CS1 students from two different countries. The aim was to identify some of the difficulties students may face when using the English language in CS1 courses. The results of this study identified some of the areas in which students most frequently encounter challenges. Additionally, a large number of the surveyed students expressed their desire to use a mix of English and their native language in studying programming.

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Cited By

Bouvier DLovellette ESantos EBecker BDasigi VForden JGlebova OJoshi SKurkovsky SRussell SChoppella VPhatak DLuxton-Reilly ACraig M(2024)Teaching Programming Error Message UnderstandingWorking Group Reports on 2023 ACM Conference on Global Computing Education10.1145/3598579.3689377(1-30)Online publication date: 23-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3598579.3689377

Index Terms

The Use of English Language to Teach CS1 to Non-Native English Speakers: Students Perspective
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Adult education
      2. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
        CS1

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CompEd 2023: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Global Computing Education Vol 1

December 2023

180 pages

ISBN:9798400700484

DOI:10.1145/3576882

General Chairs:
Venkatesh Choppella
IIIT Hyderabad, India
,
Deepak B. Phatak
IIT Bombay, India
,
Program Chairs:
Andrew Luxton-Reilly
University of Auckland, New Zealand
,
Michelle Craig
University of Toronto, Canada

Copyright © 2023 Owner/Author.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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SIGCSE: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 05 December 2023

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CompEd 2023: ACM Global Computing Education Conference 2023

December 5 - 9, 2023

Hyderabad, India

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Overall Acceptance Rate 33 of 100 submissions, 33%

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October 21 - 25, 2025

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Cited By

Bouvier DLovellette ESantos EBecker BDasigi VForden JGlebova OJoshi SKurkovsky SRussell SChoppella VPhatak DLuxton-Reilly ACraig M(2024)Teaching Programming Error Message UnderstandingWorking Group Reports on 2023 ACM Conference on Global Computing Education10.1145/3598579.3689377(1-30)Online publication date: 23-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3598579.3689377

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