Identifying and solving issues with acquiring skills in computer programming for non-English speakers

Since computers have become widely used, programming has become a critical skill, as indicated by a recent push by many governments to make it a core part of the secondary school curriculum. Programming languages are built upon English language words and phrases like “for” and “while”, as well as concepts framed in English, like the idea of an “if” statement, representing a choice. It is possible that this could make learning an English-based programming language for non-English language speakers especially challenging. So, what solutions could be developed to solve the problem? With this question in mind, this research investigates non-English language speakers’ grasp of programming. This research started with the question of whether or not needing to understand English would be an extra challenge for students learning programming. Experience from the researcher’s own practice suggested that this was the case; however, what did the literature indicate? An extensive literature review revealed that, in actuality, the literature did not say much. While many focused on solutions to teaching programming, and some researchers focused on the problems that led to these solutions, very few researchers made any distinction between the language capabilities of novices. Even among those projects that were conducted in non-English speaking countries, little attention was given to the demographics of the cohort of participants, and what this meant to the results presented. Based on the literature, this research study highlights issues that directly influence beginners learning programming, looking particularly at the difficulties faced by those that do not have English as a first language. So, the task became to determine whether English was an issue in learning programming or not. A major contribution of this work to the theory and the literature is the observation that issues with programming are different for English language speakers and non-English language speakers. This is something that has not been sufficiently highlighted in the literature in the past. The other contribution of this work is to practice, with the suggestion that strategies such as guidebooks and block programming can help to solve the problems with error messages and syntax for all students. Future work in the area should build upon this contribution, looking to expand experiments on how to solve this issue for non-English language speakers through interventions like those that were trialled. In this way, a greater uptake of programming by all students, both English language speakers and non-English language speakers, can be achieved.