Classroom Versus Screencast for Native Language Learners

Abstract

Students, who study in their native language in K-12 and go on to do their undergraduate education in English, have difficulty in acquiring programming knowledge. Solutions targeted towards improving their English proficiency take time, while those that continue with native language in the classroom limit the students' ability to compete in a global market. Another solution could be the use of video-based instructional material to empower a student for self-paced learning. In this paper, we present a comparative study of classroom instruction versus self-paced screencasts for native language learners' acquisition of programming concepts. We conducted four introductory programming workshops, each of six days duration. Two workshops were classroom based, one having Hindi (native language) as the medium of instruction and other in English. Two other workshops were screencast based, again one in Hindi and one in English. We measured differences between the groups using a post-test, across different content types such as fact, concepts and process. We found that when medium of instruction is different from language of K-12 instruction, there is an adverse impact on learning. However, when self-paced screencast is used instead of classroom environment, there is a statistically significant improvement in performance. Our work informs the choice of MoI and choice of environment for native language learners.

The Effectiveness of Screencast for Understanding Computer Command Interfaces

“…These results are the same as previous studies even though the research is screencasting or technical, procedures for producing products. Pal and Iyer's research shows that the language used for audio narration at the time of recording is the user's native language [22], [23]. Several recommendations suggested by researchers when creating screencasts have been well followed in this study.…”

Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Computational Thinking: Enactment in Elementary Classrooms

“…There is currently a lack of research focused on translanguaging in CT education (Vogel et al, 2019), however there are examples of how translanguaging has been used in a variety of teaching areas as a way to support equity in education, particularly for emergent bilingual students (García, Johnson, Seltzer, & Valdés, 2017). Although previous work on translanguaging in CS has described how teachers can use English and Hindi (Pal & Iyer, 2015) to teach students how to program, those students did not yet provide researchers with an understanding of the relationship between students' translanguaging and computational thinking (Vogel et al, 2019). However, Vogel et al, (2019) found that when students use translanguaging practices alongside CS/CT they blur linguistic and disciplinary boundaries.…”

The Role of Translanguaging in Computational Literacies

“…We build on this by considering how students make meaning in CS ed using language beyond "talk, " and how their language use is shaped by their diverse profiles and experiences. Translanguaging has been mentioned in CS education studies of Indian tertiary schooling contexts, mostly to describe how teachers used both English and Hindi [30] or Tamil [32] to teach programming to students who have been schooled through a vernacular language. Those studies, however, do not provide researchers and practitioners with an understanding of the characteristics of students'-especially young bilingual students'-language practices while they engage in CS, and the relationship of students' translanguaging to computational thinking concepts or practices.…”