Publication Date

2-17-2026

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Title

SIGCSE TS 2026 Proceedings of the 57th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V 2

DOI

10.1145/3770761.3777339

First Page

1559

Last Page

1560

Abstract

As computing education expands globally, the dominance of English in programming languages can present barriers for students who are not native English speakers. This research work investigates whether language matters in programming by examining how a bilingual programming workshop influences student attitudes, perceived understanding and comfort. Sixty bilingual participants from San Jose State University, 40 with little to no prior programming experience and 20 experienced programmers completed a two-hour workshop using the multilingual Hedy platform. Pre- and post-surveys measured changes in confidence, enjoyment, motivation, identity, and usefulness, complemented by open-ended questions about participants’ experiences. All students showed improvements across most constructs, but inexperienced students gained more in confidence and enjoyment, while experienced students showed smaller gains and preferred coding in English. Qualitative responses revealed that while most students felt English supported clarity, bilingual students more often reported that using both languages helped with conceptual understanding, despite some translation challenges. These findings contribute to ongoing discussions in computer science education about linguistic inclusion and offer practical insights for educators designing multilingual or culturally responsive programming environments.

Keywords

Bilingualism, Broadening Participation, Programming languages

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Computer Science

Download

Share

COinS