Impact of Proficiency in English on the Intuitive Understanding of ‎Computer Science Concepts

Conference: The European Conference on Education (ECE2022)
Title: Impact of Proficiency in English on the Intuitive Understanding of ‎Computer Science Concepts
Stream: International Education
Presentation Type: Virtual Presentation
Authors:
Ismat Aldmour, Al-baha University, Saudi Arabia

Abstract:

Computer science terms like: Code, Analysis, Protocol, Encapsulation, ‎Validation, Sampling, Model and many more are borrowed from English with their ‎meanings slightly altered to suite computer science. This makes initial computer ‎science acquiring more difficult for non-native English students, while it is ‎facilitated for students of higher English proficiency. This is sort of a transfer from ‎language proficiency to computer science which is similar to the known concept of ‎transfer from one language to another in new language acquisition. The paper ‎presents a test for assessing this transfer by investigating students' understanding of ‎selected terms in both technical and non-technical contexts. The terms were selected ‎to represent computer science sub-concepts as defined in the literature; hence, ‎students’ understanding of these terms in everyday non-technical uses, measures ‎potential students’ understanding of these same terms in computer science technical ‎uses. The test was applied on Arabic speaking students of different English ‎proficiency and different maturity levels. It was found that the intuitive ‎understanding of the terms in computer science improves with improved English, but ‎no impact of maturity was found. Computer science students’ records revealed an ‎association between computer science learning and English level which is attributed ‎partially to this transfer.‎

Virtual Presentation

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