Agarwal, J., & Bucks, G. W., & Ossman, K. A., & Murphy, T. J., & Sunny, C. E. (2021, July), Learning a Second Language and Learning a Programming Language: An Exploration  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37423

\bibitem{asee_peer_37423}
  Agarwal, J., \& Bucks, G. W., \& Ossman, K. A., \& Murphy, T. J., \& Sunny, C. E. (2021, July), \emph{Learning a Second Language and Learning a Programming Language: An Exploration}
  Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference.
  10.18260/1-2--37423

Jutshi Agarwal, Gregory Warren Bucks, Kathleen A. Ossman, Teri J. Murphy, and Cijy Elizabeth Sunny.  "Learning a Second Language and Learning a Programming Language: An Exploration".  2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, 2021, July.  ASEE Conferences, 2021.  https://peer.asee.org/37423 Internet.  17 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_37423}
  Jutshi Agarwal, Gregory Warren Bucks, Kathleen A. Ossman, Teri J. Murphy, and Cijy Elizabeth Sunny.
  "Learning a Second Language and Learning a Programming Language: An Exploration".
  \emph{2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference, 2021, July}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2021.
  https://peer.asee.org/37423 Internet.  17 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_37423
author = "Jutshi Agarwal, Gregory Warren Bucks, Kathleen A. Ossman, Teri J. Murphy, and Cijy Elizabeth Sunny"
title = "Learning a Second Language and Learning a Programming Language: An Exploration"
booktitle = "2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access"
year = "2021"
month = "July"
address = "Virtual Conference"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/37423}
number = {10.18260/1-2--37423}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Computing has become a foundational subject across the engineering disciplines with many first-year engineering curricula either including a course on computing or integrating computing within a broader introductory course. However, there is significant evidence that students have difficulty both learning and applying the computing concepts traditionally covered. Many different theories have been proposed for why students find computing concepts so difficult to understand. Some theories ascribe the difficulty in learning computing concepts to the abstract nature of the concepts and the lack of prior experience on which to build understanding. Other theories relate the difficulty to students incorrectly applying natural language structure to computing structures. One example of this is the use of the term While. In natural language, a sentence using the word while often implies an immediate cessation of an activity once the condition for termination is reached. In computing, on the other hand, the condition is only checked once during each iteration of a while loop, resulting in the potential for students to incorrectly assume that the loop will terminate as soon as a value changes that would cause the loop condition to fail and exit the loop. 

It is this latter idea that is of interest in this paper. Learning multiple natural languages has often been associated with increased mathematical and scientific aptitude. Research also suggests that learning a new computing language may be similar to learning a natural language. However, little research has been done exploring the relationship between natural language acquisition and computing language acquisition, with even less on whether strategies employed for learning a natural language transfer to learning a computing language, particularly in an engineering setting.  

This full research paper aims to explore whether a relationship exists between learning a second natural language and learning a computing language. All first-year engineering students at a large, midwestern, urban, R1 institution are exposed to computing concepts through a common first-year engineering curriculum. To explore if a relationship exists between learning a second natural language and learning a computing language, student performance in the first-year engineering courses will be evaluated based on previous or concurrent experience with second natural languages acquisition and controlled for by prior experience with computing languages and other mitigating factors (standardized test scores, etc.). Experience with a second natural language is defined as having successfully taken at least one university-level foreign language course (e.g., Spanish, French, German, Italian) either with AP credit (from high school) or in the first year of college. Experience with a computing language is defined as having taken at least one university-level computing course either in high school or in the first year of college.  
AU  - Jutshi Agarwal
AU  - Gregory Warren Bucks
AU  - Kathleen A. Ossman
AU  - Teri J. Murphy
AU  - Cijy Elizabeth Sunny
CY  - Virtual Conference
DA  - 2021/07/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Learning a Second Language and Learning a Programming Language: An Exploration
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/37423
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--37423
ER  -