Native Language's Effect on Java Compiler Errors
Abstract
Novice student compilation behaviors are well documented by prior research, but those findings are derived from instructional contexts that are largely in English-dominant locales. Speakers of languages other than English face unique challenges while learning to program like partial localization of applications and programming language syntax based on English-only keywords. This study examines compiler errors of novice programming students from different native language backgrounds to explore potential differences in their error distributions relative to those in English dominant contexts. For example, it is plausible that students from non-English language backgrounds would experience more "unknown identifier" types of errors while programming with English keywords and API methods. Using data from the BlueJ Blackbox database, we analyzed error distributions for users based on country and language group characteristics. Statistical analysis showed a statistically significant difference in error distributions between native language groups; however, effect sizes were very weak indicating that the differences have little practical significance in terms of guiding either language or instructional design. However, these results may support drawing broader inferences from earlier Java compilation behavior studies to global contexts.
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Increasing the readability of programming error messages at scale and across languages remains a challenge.
“While it is clear that increasing the readability of PEMs is helpful to novices, doing so at scale, and across languages (both programming and natural [34]), remains a challenge.”
From Using Large Language Models to Enhance Programming Error Messages (2023) · cites this paper as [34]
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- Authors
- Reestman, K., & Dorn, B.
- Affiliations
- University of Nebraska at Omaha (US)
- ORCID
- Dorn, Brian
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2019-07-30
- Pages
- 249-257
- OpenAlex
- W2964564894
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 4.05
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER) (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Teaching and Learning Programming
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Research
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Logic, programming, and type systems
- Keywords
- mother tongue, compiler errors, novice programmers, Java, programming education, non-English speakers, error distribution
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