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Natural language in introductory programming: an experimental study

Authors:

Osvaldo Luiz Oliveira,

Ana Maria Monteiro,

Norton Trevisan RomanAuthors Info & Claims

ITiCSE '11: Proceedings of the 16th annual joint conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

Page 363

https://doi.org/10.1145/1999747.1999877

Published: 27 June 2011 Publication History

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Abstract

Although characterized as being "high level", classical programming languages such as Pascal and C have a grammar that is very different from natural language. In this research field, two main streams are noteworthy, one of them is characterized by an attempt to facilitate the understanding of the grammar of classic programming languages [1] and the other investigates how one may design languages for novices which are in line with their natural way of thinking about programming [2]. Focusing in the learning of concepts such as sequence of sentences that express actions, conditions and repetitions, we conducted an experimental study to investigate the hypothesis that the use of natural language can facilitate learning introductory programming.

References

[1]

Villalobos, J. A., Calderon, N. A., and Jiménez, C. H. 2009. Developing programming skills by using interactive learning objects. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin 41, 3 (Sep. 2009), 151--155. DOI=10.1145/1562877.1562927.

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[2]

Guzdial, M. 2008. Paving the Way for Computational Thinking. Communications of the ACM 51, 8 (Aug. 2008), 25--27. DOI=10.1145/1378704.1378713.

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Index Terms

Natural language in introductory programming: an experimental study
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Published In

ITiCSE '11: Proceedings of the 16th annual joint conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

June 2011

418 pages

ISBN:9781450306973

DOI:10.1145/1999747

General Chair:
Guido Rößling
TU Darmstadt, Germany
,
Program Chairs:
Tom Naps
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, USA
,
Christian Spannagel
PH Heidelberg, Germany

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 27 June 2011

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ITiCSE '11

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SIGCSE

ITiCSE '11: Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

June 27 - 29, 2011

Darmstadt, Germany

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Overall Acceptance Rate 552 of 1,613 submissions, 34%

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