Code is not a foreign language, and high schools shouldn't treat it that way
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Re: Code is not a foreign language, and high schools shouldn't treat it that way
#2Computer languages are called languages for a reason. They have syntax, grammar, vocabulary, and are used for communication. People who don't speak english for example but who read python can often read code you wrote and understand it. Math is a similar thing and sometimes called a universal language.
These are different sorts of languages from day to day spoken and written languages for general communication, but they can be reasonably put in the same larger umbrella of language.
Whether they should be applied to a graduation second language requirement is certainly debatable. Some school systems may reasonably say yes, others no.
Of perhaps no doubt though is that at the present time, complete fluency/competency in a computer language is far more valuable to an individual than mastery of any language other than english.
Given this, perhaps schools should instead consider dropping the foreign language requirements entirely and replacing them with requirements for fluency in at least one computer language.
Re: Code is not a foreign language, and high schools shouldn't treat it that way
#3No, not any more than math or statistics are. Replacing a foreign language with a programming course is like replacing a music class with a math course; you may think it's a good idea, but it's not because it's replacing the same type of thing.
Re: Code is not a foreign language, and high schools shouldn't treat it that way
#4[flagged]
Re: Code is not a foreign language, and high schools shouldn't treat it that way
#5Is algebra a foreign language?
Re: Code is not a foreign language, and high schools shouldn't treat it that way
#6I'm not sure that anyone would argue that programming languages are anywhere near human language.
Though the article is in response to allowing CS/programming classes to count towards foreign language credit in highschool, which is a potential way to get more kids involved with programming. Though given the efficacy of foreign language programs in highschool I'm not sure CS would do any better...
Re: Code is not a foreign language, and high schools shouldn't treat it that way
#7To make the counter argument, it is rather unfortunate that the way foreign languages are normally taught in U.S. schools (grammar first to make it painful) leads to the cliche of “I took 4 years of French in high school and I can only speak very little.” On this line, make computer languages a foreign language, as schools do a poor job overall teaching a foreign language so that it can be truly acquired. The advantage of computer languages as a foreign language is that picking it up for the learner does not require the learner to deal with frustration and embarrassment in the context of interacting with other people, like they would learning to communicate in a foreign language.
> Within this subset of multilinguals who are well-versed in a non-English language, 89% acquired these skills in the childhood home, compared with 7% citing school as their main setting for language acquisition.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/13/learning-a-f...
Re: Code is not a foreign language, and high schools shouldn't treat it that way
#8Speak to Larry Wall about this.
Re: Code is not a foreign language, and high schools shouldn't treat it that way
#9Computer languages are called languages for a reason. They have syntax, grammar, vocabulary, and are used for communication. People who don't speak english for example but who read python can often read code you wrote and understand it. Math is a similar thing and sometimes called a universal language. These are different sorts of languages from day to day spoken and written languages for general communication, but t…
> People who don't speak english for example but who read python can often read code you wrote and understand it. Math is a similar thing and sometimes called a universal language.
I doubt that's true. It would be like reading re-prettified minified Javascript: they wouldn't understand the meaning of the identifiers or comments. That doesn't strictly make it impossible to understand the code, but it's much, much harder.
It's the same for math, frankly: without explanations of what the things in equations are, or why the author is doing what they are doing, it's somewhere between very hard to understand (for the most formal stuff, like the Principia), and hopeless for most papers.
Re: Code is not a foreign language, and high schools shouldn't treat it that way
#10No, it is an alien language.