Does Computer Programming Count as a “Foreign Language”?

 By Amy Russo

Introduction:

Computers are everywhere. Computers have become integral in every field and every state; the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates over a million computing jobs will open by 2024 (US, 2014). Many people commonly believe that young people need computer literacy, the ability to not only use, but understand how it all works (Code.org, 2016). Responding to this, many school districts and policy makers have wanted to upgrade computer science from its elective class status and to count it as core graduation requirements. As of December 2014, seventeen states and the District of Columbia allow computer science to count for a core math or science credit (Heitin, 2014). Other states, like Kentucky and New Mexico, belong to a second group which allow computer science and more specifically computer programming languages (such as Java or Python) to count under the core foreign language credit. As of March 2016, Florida is the first state to allow computer science to substitute for foreign language completely.

The classes used as graduation requirements are among the strongest statements students receive about what is valued and deemed necessary by society. Public education in America is considered an imperative to serve the common good by providing free and quality education to all members of the community regardless of background (Resnick, 2006). The mission of public education equally is to prepare students (1) to take part in a democratic and diverse society and (2) to be productive and competitive members of the work force. Public high school is the largest shared experience most Americans have. What happens during those four years reveals many of the underpinning ideologies that the community-at-large believes about marketability, personhood, and citizenship. Modern society exists in a global era of communication that is both computerized and multilingual; it demands a number of languages from learners both inside and outside the classrooms (McGroarty, 2010, p. 30). Are computer programming languages counted among the “languages” modern society demands of students?

American public education is sensitive to this issue and is grappling with redesigning its old curriculum models. Foreign language study is counted as a core credit under the old models.  The question is what to do with computer science in its new model. Schools and school districts are policy makers in a political sense while also being custodians of the public good; they must think carefully how to equip students, because their decisions have lasting impacts on student’s socioeconomic future (Resnick, 2006).

California is considering joining that second group to treat computer programming as a foreign language. California makes an interesting case study as a microcosm of the larger national conversation. It is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse states and also a major world hub of technology innovation. It is both home to the “Language Capital of the World” and Silicon Valley. What everyday people think about this topic is important, because they are members of the “public” that public education is trying to serve. I set out to find where the residents of the Monterey Bay area stand on these questions about the value and relationship of computer programming and foreign language learning.

Fundamental Questions Raised:

1. Are computer programming languages close enough to human languages to count as “language”?
2. How important is it for every student to be required to take a foreign language today?
3. How important is it for every student to have the option to take computer programming?
4. Given limited class time and budget, should public education (A) offer both computer science and foreign language and (B) house computer science under foreign language?

Methodology:

The first question asked how long participants have lived in the Monterey Bay area. This was used to make sure the participants were residents and not among the large visiting population. The Monterey Bay area is a unique mix of both long-term and short-term residents, including students, soldiers, and scholars from various parts of America and many international locations. Length of residence was not considered a large factor, so all residents’ opinions are valid.

I tried to represent the variety of people through where I gathered participants. In total, thirty-two people were polled. Eleven participants were graduate students from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, four were domestic students and seven were international students. These MIIS students have lived in the area for between less than one year to three years. Twenty participants were interviewed at various farmer’s markets and have all lived in the area for more than 10 years. From those twenty-one, roughly half appeared to be above the age of 40 and the others appeared to be late-teens to late-twenties.

The survey took three to five minutes to complete, and each participant was provided with a laminated copy of the survey and gave their answers verbally. I wrote down their responses using a key or short answers. I explained each part of the survey and let the participants answer in their own time. At the beginning, I included this introduction:

Since I identified myself as a student in an education class, this may have influenced their opinions if they thought I would value a certain kind of class. I took steps to mitigate this threat in the survey design.

The survey elicited how important people believed that computer programming and foreign languages were for students. Using the two-fold mission of American public education, importance was explored on two levels: personal development and professional development in questions two and three (Resnick, 2006). I chose the terms ‘personal enrichment’ for the former and ‘useful’ for the latter. As seen below, I listed six high school elective classes available in California in alphabetical order. These classes were chosen because they commonly could be considered either ‘personally enriching’ (e.g. art) or useful (e.g. driving) for students’ futures. Web design was included to make sure computer programming was studied in isolation. Participants were asked to rank the courses from the one that was most useful or enriching (6) to the one that was least useful or enriching (1).

The fourth question asked if the participant was aware that currently in California students are required to take a foreign language class to graduate from high school. The answer choices were yes, no, and prefer not to answer. Then I asked why they thought this was the case and I recorded their short answers. The fifth question described the current situation in California as shown below. The phrase ‘computer programming languages’ was chosen to give both computer programming and foreign language as equal footing as possible. Participants were then asked how strongly did they agree or disagree with the four statements about the topic. I used a Likert scale with 5 choices: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree, and No opinion.

Statement A “This change has merit” and Statement B “This change should be made” were used to distinguish between general perceived benefit and the will to implement the change. Statement C “This change is surprising” was included to see how expected or unexpected the change was. Statement D “Learning computer programming fills the same role as learning a foreign language for students” was included as a direct and clear question of whether the two kinds of classes were synonymous or not.

 

Findings:

The first goal of the survey was to look at popular opinion about the importance of learning computer programming and foreign languages for students. I calculated the mean score of personal enrichment and usefulness for both computer programming and foreign language as seen in Table 1 (n = 32).  For personally usefulness for students, the mean score was 4.2 for computer programming and 4.3 for foreign language. For personally enriching for students, the mean score was 2.9 for computer programming and 4.3 for foreign language.

I also examined to see if there was a difference between the local participants (n = 21) and the MIIS participants (n = 11) as seen in Table 1. For computer programming’s usefulness, locals and MIIS participants ranked almost identically around 4.1. With foreign languages’ usefulness, there was a considerable difference between the MIIS participants who it scored at 5.2 and the locals at 3.7. The MIIS participants’ score might be skewed because almost all students must have a high language proficiency to be admitted to MIIS; they might value foreign language more than the average person because it is part of their identity. For computer programming’s enrichment, both groups had almost the same scores around 2.9. For foreign language enrichment, both groups were again in agreement ranking around 4.3.

Computer programming here seems to be ascribed a high level of professional or pragmatic value, but less so in the realm of personal growth by both local and MIIS participants.  The skill is valuable, but it is perhaps seen as a special skill set that some people, but not all need to have. Some people might think computer programming is perhaps boring, depending on how they understand enriching. Local people do find computer science more useful than foreign language, though both are ranked above average.  MIIS people value computer programming to a similar degree as the locals do, but rank foreign language significantly higher. From these results, I concluded that people in the Monterey Bay area believe computer programming is important for some people, because it is valuable (useful), but foreign language is all around important for everyone, because it holds both personal and professional value.

The second goal was to see if people knew that students in California must take a foreign language to graduate and why they thought this was the case. To begin, the majority of participants (63.6%) knew this fact as seen in Table 2. I found that most people who answered no tended to be from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies campus. This may be because these respondents were from places outside of California. Many of the international participants expressed genuine surprise that foreign language would be a requirement.

Next, in the short-answer items, I found seven ideologies which trended among participants as seen in Table 3. The biggest trend is what I termed the ‘Broaden Horizon’ reason. People in this category described how learning a foreign language will help students “open up” and “see the world is a big place” and “perhaps even visit other parts.” The next trend was ‘California is special.’ These people suggested that the reason had something to do with the nature of California, for example “California is the most multicultural state” or “California has such a big Spanish population.” These participants may not have been aware that most states have foreign language requirements or perhaps they thought despite the difficult economic times if any state should keep language it would be California.

The ‘Because its America’ group believed similarly to the ‘California is special’ group that there is something intrinsic about America that made learning foreign languages a part of its identity, as seen in comments like “America is a melting pot” and “It’s what it means to be the US. Otherwise we would be China.” The ‘Global Economy’ group talked about how the world has become globalized and to compete the US needs to be able to communicate and do business internationally.  It is about getting jobs and money, revealing a very financial orientation. The last three trends are ‘Personal Pragmatic Benefit’ including comments such as you “need it to get into college” and “it improves your brain”; ‘Global Responsibility’ taken from comments such as “the US needs to help with international cooperation”, “the US can’t be insular anymore”, and “we must build a more peaceful world”; and ‘Foreign Language = Spanish’ taken from comments like “because of all the Mexicans” and “the US has all those migrants that come from down south.”

The third goal was to look specifically at how the Monterey Bay area felt about the suggested change to have computer science classes count for the foreign language requirement. Table 4 shows the total agreement, disagreement, and no opinion for each statement for the whole group n = 32.  Table 5 shows the breakdown of agreement and disagreement by numbers for the local and MIIS participants.

As seen in table 4, Statement A (Allowing computer programming to count for foreign language has merit) showed a majority (61.3%) of people thought the change had merit and about half of those felt strongly so. Several respondents from the farmer’s market wanted me to write down unprompted comments here, for example “Hell yeah!” and “It’s about time!” The disagreement was not very strong (32.3%), which goes against the wisdom from the previous question where foreign language was viewed as more important.  Table 5 shows for statement A, both local and MIIS participants had roughly equal numbers of agreement and disagreement within their groups.

As seen on Table 4 for Statement B (Allowing computer programming to count for foreign language should be done), the majority (54.9%) said that the change should be done.  Table 5 reveals an interesting angle.  All of the people who strongly agree or had no opinion were local people. There were both local and MIIS participants who strongly disagreed. The local people had equal numbers of those who agreed and disagreed with the statement.  All of the MIIS participants took a stance and similar to the locals, they had near equal numbers of agreement and disagreement.

Statement C (Allowing computer programming to count for foreign language is surprising) has no clear majority, but it was a mildly surprising statement at 45.1% as seen in Table 4. As seen on Table 5, all the strongly agreeing participants were local. The MIIS participants were more surprised on average, while the local group had roughly equal numbers about being surprised or not. A weakness was determined with the question: We know that Statement C was somewhat surprising, but not in which way. Did people think it was good as in “it’s about time” or bad as in “how could anybody think that?”

Statement D (Learning computer programming fulfills the same role as a foreign language for students) showed a clear majority (77.4%) did not believe that computer programming was a kind of foreign language study as seen on Table 4. It is notable that this is the only question every participant took a stance on, which shows the strong feelings attached to this.  As seen on Table 5, all the MIIS people where against it and the local people were equally for and against it.

 

Discussion:

Fundamental Questions Raised:

1. Are computer programming languages close enough to human languages to count as “language”?
2. How important is it for every student to be required to take a foreign language today?
3. How important is it for every student to have the option to take computer programming?
4. Given limited class time and budget, should public education (A) offer both computer science and foreign language and (B) house computer science under foreign language?

Question 1: The Monterey Bay area thinks that computer programming is not a kind of foreign language.  This can be seen in the findings with Statement D that showed a majority of disagreement when asked if the two subjects were interchangeable (See Table 4). The mean scores from question 2 (see Table 1) showed that foreign language was viewed as both personally and professionally beneficial; if computer science was considered under the umbrella of foreign language then its mean score should correlate. The findings from question 2 also showed that people believed that computer science was very professionally beneficial, but not as much personally. Thus these findings strongly suggest that the Monterey Bay area thinks computer programming and foreign languages are distinct subjects.

The situation in question 5 and its subsequent Statements A-D show that computer science is not currently counted as a core requirement; participants responded with approval to its promotion as evident in their strong positive reactions to Statement A and Statement B (See Table 4). One reason for this could be that people feel computer science is being currently undervalued by public schools; they think it is a useful and possibly necessary skill to which students should have access. Thus the Monterey Bay area thinks computer programming should not be counted as a foreign language, but it would be a positive step to give computer programming a more prestigious place (e.g. counting for credit) in public schools.

Question 2: In the Monterey Bay area, it is widely considered to be personally and professionally important to have exposure to foreign language. This is congruent with the national conversation.  Foreign language study is offered at most high schools in America and while it is not a nationwide graduation requirement, it is in the majority of states (National, 2010). Consequently, most students have some option among languages to take: most commonly French or Spanish, but some others include Latin, Chinese, and Japanese. Having exposure to foreign language has long been popularly viewed as an element of what it means to be educated. Moreover, in recent years a lot of research in neuroscience has detailed the benefits of being bilingual in the cognitive, neural, and social areas (Martin & Shook, 2012). While most students in high school will reach only a low degree of proficiency, the public-at-large seems to think that every student should have the chance to be exposed.

Question 3: Computer programming widely is considered a vital skill for professional development for many, if not all students, by the Monterey Bay area. At the very least, it is clear that people believe the option to take it should exist.  This sentiment is echoed nationally and there are many strong proponents.

Take for instance, Code.org, a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science, has compiled considerable data showing how widely sought computer science education is. They cite a 2014 gallop poll saying “9 in 10 parents want their children to study computer science,” but highlight how “only 1 in 4 schools teach computer science” using a 2015 gallop poll (Code.org, 2016). They summarize their movement like this “Every 21st century child should have a chance to learn about algorithms, how to make an app and how the internet works” (Computer, n.d.). Another example is in California starting from late 2015, Claire Shorall, a computer science manager at Oakland Unified School District, has been running a petition on Change.com. Her arguments have already won over 17,000 signatures in support of her cause. Shorall argues that California should be a leader in computer science and that all schools should not only offer it, but should make it count as a core credit (Shorall, n.d.).

Question 4: As we can see from these examples, computer science is a hot issue for school districts nationwide and it is particularly timely here in California. The school districts and various legislators grappling with this issue seemed to give some weight to Shorall’s sentiment that “leaders across academia and business have declared that computer science is foundational” (Shorall, n.d.). They are divided somewhat about where to make it count as a math/science or foreign language credit. The findings show that the Monterey Bay area feels strongly that computer science should count, but not as a foreign language. This sentiment is in agreement with many of the strong national proponents of computer science.  As Amy Hirotaka of code.org warns treating them the same is possibly damaging to both, may interfere with student’s college entrance requirements, and oversimplifies all that computer science entails (Hirotaka, 2014).  Her reasoning goes

 “Computer science fits within the disciplines of math and science, and specifically strengthens math concepts like geometry, functions and variables, as well as science concepts such as experimentation and modeling/simulation. […] Although we use the term “programming language” to refer to C++, Java, Python, and so on, these aren’t natural languages. Spanish has a vocabulary of 10,000 words, with a consistent grammatical and sentence structure. In contrast, a typical computing language has a vocabulary of about 100 words, and the real work is learning how to put these words together to build a complex program” (Hirotaka, 2014).

 

Does Computer Programming Count as a “Foreign Language”? No. Most people surveyed and many of the strong proponents of computer science believe that it is a separate entity.  There is wide agreement that computer science should be a core credit though.  Further research could be done about where people believe it should count or how effective do people think high school level computer science or foreign language needs to be. In conclusion, the public education policy makers in California should work hard to fulfill their mandate by providing access to both computer science (including programming) and foreign language to all students.

 

 

References

Code.org. (2016). Summary of source data for code.org infographics and stats. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gySkItxiJn_vwb8HIIKNXqen184mRtzDX12cux0ZgZk/ pub

Computer science is foundational. (n.d.) [Graphic Illustration]. Retrieved from
https://code.org/promote

Heitin, L. (2014). Computer Science Education: Not Just an Elective Anymore. Education Week, 33(22), 1-12.

Hirotaka, A. (2014, January 30). Computer science is not a foreign language [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://blog.code.org/post/75129943201/language

Marian, V., & Shook, A. (2012 October 31). The cognitive benefits of being bilingual. Cerebrum, 13. Retrieved from  www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3583091/

McGroarty, M. (2010). Sociolinguistics and language education (N. H. Hornberger, Ed.). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

National Council of State Supervisors for Languages. (2010) States with or considering high school foreign language graduation requirements (revised March 2010). Retrieved from http://www.ncssfl.org/docs/States%20with%20Foreign%20Language%20Graduation%20Requirements%20-%20%20Revised%202010.pdf

Resnick, M. A. (2006). An American imperative: Public education. In National School Boards Association Policy Research Brief (Spring/Summer 2004). Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Public-education/An-American-imperative-Public-education-