Understanding the syntax barrier for novices
Abstract
Mastering syntax is one of the earliest challenges facing the novice programmer. Problem solving and algorithms are the focus of many first year programming classes, leaving students to learn syntax on their own while they practice writing code. In this paper we investigate the frequency with which students encounter syntax errors during a drill and practice activity. We find that students struggle with syntax to a greater extent than we anticipated, even when writing short fragments of code.
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Instructors spend a considerable amount of time helping novices with cryptic error messages.
“Instructors report that they spend a considerable amount of time helping novices with these often cryptic messages [15,31,32,37].”
From Using Large Language Models to Enhance Programming Error Messages (2023) · cites this paper as [15]
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References 17 · Cited by 133
- Authors
- Denny, P., Luxton-Reilly, A., Tempero, E., & Hendrickx, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 16th annual joint conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2011-06-27
- Pages
- 208-212
- OpenAlex
- W2079166885
- Cited by
- 133
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 3.47
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE) (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Teaching and Learning Programming
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Logic, programming, and type systems
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Educational Robotics and Engineering
- Keywords
- programming language syntax, novice programmers, syntactic errors, first-year programming, drill and practice, programming education, student learning difficulties
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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