Fall

Fall

TheAnalysisofFluencyandAccuracy
intheComputerScienceDiscourse
Community
AishwaryaJaggannathShekharAsthana

Thisresearchwillexaminetowhatextentmembersofthecomputersciencediscourse
communityareexpectedtohaveahigherleveloffluencyandaccuracyincomparisonto
membersinanaturallanguagediscoursecommunity.

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Languagehasalwaysbeenapowerfulinstrumentincommunication,notjustfor
expressingonesthoughtsandopinionsverballyorinwritingwithanaudience,butalso
forcommunicatingwithoneself.Withthegrowingimportanceoftechnologyinour
worldtoday,itiscrucialtoconsiderthatcodinghasevolvedintoitsownlanguage.Just
likeanyother,theprogramminglanguagehasitsownsetofsyntaxrulesthatmustbe
followedforeffectivecommunicationbetweentheuserandtheprogram.
Itiscriticaltocomprehendthedifferencebetweennaturalandformallanguages.
InAllenDowneysHowtothinklikeacomputerscientist,anaturallanguageis
describedasonethatisusedforcommunication(Downey,2015).Spanish,Russianand
Englishareexamplesofnaturallanguages.Ontheotherhand,aformallanguageisone
thatisdesignedbyhumanstoserveauniquepurpose(Downey, 2015).Thespecific
purposeofallprogramminglanguagesistosolveagivenproblem.
Thereforethecomputersciencediscoursecommunityiscomposedof
programmerswhocreatesolutionsforcomplexproblemsthroughcoding.Inorderto
achievethispurpose,whatleveloffluencyisrequiredbythemembersofthecomputer
sciencediscoursecommunity?Howdoesthisleveloffluencydifferfromthatrequiredby
membersofanaturallanguagediscoursecommunity?Consequently,thispaperwill
examinetowhatextentisfluencyandaccuracyinthelanguageofprogrammingmore
significantthanthatintheEnglishdiscoursecommunity.

OneofthefirstprogramsanycomputerscientistlearnstocodeistheHello
World!printfunction(Downey,2015).
>>> print(Hello World!)
Despitethesimplicityofthefunction,abeginnercomputerscientistlearnsthe
fundamentalsyntaxrulesoftheprogramminglanguage.Forexample,itcanbe
understoodthatprintfollowedbyanopenparenthesisiscallinguponafunctionthat
willbeexecuted;inthiscase,itwillreturntheresultwithinthequotationmarks,Hello
World.Theendparenthesisinformstheprogramthattheinputhasbeencompleted.
Evenasimplemistakesuchasmisspellingthewordprint,forgettingtoinclude
oneofthequotationmarksortheparenthesiswillresultinanerrormessage.This
signifiesthattheprogramdoesnotrecognizethelanguageandhencecantexecutethe
code.Theseerrorsareknownasbugs.

Hello,nameisBrianandIis19yearsold,isanEnglishsentencewithseveral
grammaticalmistakes.Firstly,thesentenceismissingapronounbeforename,andthe
verbtobeisusedinthewrongtense.Instead,thesentenceshouldbe,Hello,myname
isBrianandIam19yearsold.Eventhoughthesentenceisgrammaticallyincorrect,one
couldstatethatthelackoffluencydidnothindertheoverallunderstandingofthe
audience.Thefirststudywasashortsurveywasconductedwithtestsubjectsbetweenthe
agesof18to19yearsold.Thesesubjectswerepresentedwiththesentenceaboveand
wereaskediftheycouldstillunderstandwhatthespeakerwasattemptingto
communicate.Everyonesaidthattheyunderstoodtheoverallidea;Brianwastryingto

introducehimselfandsaythatheis19yearsold.Thepurposeofthesentencewasstill
achievedeventhoughitwasgrammaticallyincorrect.

Image1.1

Image1.1depictsthesameprintfunctioninadifferentformat.Avariableidea
isassignedthemessageingreen.Then,theprogramisaskedtoprintthevariable,andthe
resultisthemessageitself.However,iftherewereasimplespellingerrorinthefunction
call,thentheprogramwouldreturnanameerrormessage,whichinessenceinformsthe
userthatthenameisnotdefinedandtheprogramcantbeexecuted.Asobservedin
Image1.2,Evenaddinganextraaattheendofthewordideainhibitstheprogram
fromrunning.Itisvitaltoacknowledgethatinthelanguageofprogramming,thewriters
audienceistheprogram.Whilethetestsubjectscouldstillunderstandwhatthesentence,
Hello,nameisBrianandIis19yearsold,wastryingtoconvey,theprogramcouldnt
interprettheerrorinthesamewayandthustheprogramisrendereduseless.

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Image1.2

Images1.1and1.2demonstratesimplecodes.Itshouldbetakeninto
considerationthatintricateprogramsinvolveseveral,complexlinesofcodesthatwork
simultaneouslytosolveaproblem.Astheprogramincreasesincomplexity,sodoesthe
riskofbugsappearinginthecode.Asecondfourweekstudywasconductedwithfifteen
studentsfromanIntroductiontoProgrammingcourseatUniversityofCalifornia
Davis.Atthebeginningofthestudy,studentswereaskedthefollowingquestions:1)
Haveyouhadanypriorexperiencetocodingbeforethiscourse?2)Onascaleof110,
howfluentwouldyousayyouareincoding,atthisstage?3)Whilewritingprograms,
namethemostcommonbugyoufindinyourcodes.4)Whichdiscoursecommunitydo
youbelieverequiresahigherleveloffluencyandaccuracy,computerscienceorEnglish?
Allfifteenstudentssaidthatthiscoursewastheirfirstexperiencewithcoding,
thereforeitcouldbestatedthatthesesubjectsarenewmembersofthecomputerscience
discoursecommunity.After6weeksoutofthe10weekcourse,onlytwooutofthe
fifteenstudentsfelttheywerefluentincoding.Bothstudentsgavethemselvesan8outof
10.Sixstudentssaidtheywerearounda6outoften,whiletheremainingsevenstudents

saidthatonascaleof110,theyfeltasiftheywerea4influency.Theoneerrortype
thatwasnamedmostfrequentlyamongallfifteenstudentswasthesyntaxerror.Lastly,
allstudentsagreedthatmembersinthecomputersciencediscoursecommunityrequirea
higherleveloffluencyandaccuracythanthoseintheEnglishone.
Seeingasonlytwoofthefifteenstudentsfeltthattheywerefluentinthelanguage
ofprogrammingaftersixweeks,itcanbeconcludedthatlearningtocodeisachallenging
mission.AccordingtoDowney,syntaxerrorsarethosethatconcerntheformattingofa
code(Downey,2015).
Image2.1illustratesacodethataskstheusertoinputanintegerassignedton.
Then,theprogramwillcomputethesumofallintegersupton.Thiscodeismore
complexthanthepreviousones,giventhatitusesacombinationoffunctions.Whenthis
codewaspresentedtothefifteenstudentsfromIntroductiontoProgramming,only
threewereabletoidentifyanerrorinthismessage.Image2.2showshowthecodewould
looklikeiftheerrorwascorrected.

Image2.1
Image2.2
Aftercarefulobservation,onewillnoticethatthefifthlinewiththefollowingcode,
counter=counter+1wasnotindentedinimage2.1.Evenanindentationerroras
exemplifiedabovewillhindertheprogram.Thissyntaxerrorisatypeoferrorthatevery

programmermakesregardlessofhowfluenthe/shemaybe.Regardless,images2.1and
2.2provethatalackofaccuracycanbedetrimental.

Essaywritinghasitsownsetofformattingrules.Eachnewideamusthaveits
ownparagraph,andeachparagraphmustbeindented.Thefollowingisanexampleofthe
beginningofaparagraph:
Tryingtowriteanessaycanbedifficult.Itisimportanttoensurethatyou
understandthepromptbeforeyoucanstartwritingyouressay.
Iftheopeningsentencewereindentedincorrectly,wouldthisdiminishthereaders
understandingofthesentence?Wouldtheaimoftheparagraphbeaffectedbythiserror?
Whileonemayarguethatitwoulddetractfromtheoveralltoneofthepaper,itdoesnot
inhibitthereaderfromcomprehendingwhatthesentenceisconveying.Thewritercould
havesimplymadeahumanerrorbyindentingtwiceinsteadofonce,yetthereaderstill
understandstheauthorsargument.Ifacodehasanindentationerror,theaudiencein
thiscasetheprogramcantcarryoutthefunctionandhencetheprogrammerspurpose
hasfailed.Aftercarefulanalysis,theindentationerrorin2.1caneventuallybenoticed
andcorrected.Theproblemintensifieswhenacodeiscomprisedofseveralfunctionsthat
areindented,asshownbelowinImage2.3.

Image2.3

Attheendofthesecondstudy,theinitialfifteenstudentswereaskedforan
updateontheirprogressinprogramming.Noneofthestudentsaidtheywerea10in
fluency.However,theyallfeltasiftheyimprovedandaremorefluentinprogramming
thantheywereatthebeginningofthestudy.Thisshowsthatjustlikethenatural
languages,withconstantpracticeonecanbecomemorefluentincoding.Whenasked
whaterrortheystillexperiencemostoftenwhilecoding,majorityofthestudentsagreed
thatsyntaxerrorswerestillasignificantissue.Onestudentexplainedthatsyntaxerrors
appearsofrequentlybecauseaprogrammersprimaryfocusistowriteacompletecode
thatsolvesthegivenproblem.Itisntuntiltheend,whentheprogrammerattemptstorun
thecodethathe/shecomesacrosstheerrors.

Thisisacriticalobservationthatdistinguisheshowfluencyandaccuracycanbe
improvedbymembersofthecomputersciencediscoursecommunityincomparisonto
membersfromtheEnglishdiscoursecommunity.Itiseasiertoimproveinfluencyina

naturallanguagethaninthelanguageofprogramming.Errorsthatoccurwhilelearninga
newlanguagecanbecorrectedthroughunderstandingthegrammaticalreasoning.Oncea
studentunderstandshowthegrammarruleworksthenthechancesofrepeatingthaterror
decreases.Whereasinthelanguageofprogramming,eventhoughastudentmay
understandwhytheerrorinhibitstheprogram,itcanoccurrepeatedlyduetohumanerror
whilewritingthecode.
Theresearchconductedforthepurposeofthisessayvalidatestheconceptthat
membersofthecomputersciencediscoursecommunityrequireahigherleveloffluency
inaccuracythanmembersfromtheEnglishdiscoursecommunity.Firstly,errorsthatcan
occurwhileprogrammingareduetohumanerror,suchasthesyntaxerrorsexemplified
above.ErrorsthatoccurinEnglishcanbeexplainedsothatthemistakeisnotrepeated.
Additionally,certaingrammaticalerrorsinEnglishdonothindertheunderstandingof
whatthespeakerisattemptingtocommunicatetohis/heraudience.Ontheotherhand,a
mistakeincodinginhibitstheprogram(theaudienceinthiscircumstance)from
understandingwhattheuserisaskingfor.Therefore,theprogramcantcarryoutthecode
andhencethespecifiedproblemcantberesolved.Ifthewritercantcommunicate
efficiently,thentheimportanceofthatlanguageisdiminished.
Despitethefactthatthelanguageofprogrammingrequiresahigherlevelof
accuracyandfluency,itwouldbeunjustifiedtosaythatmembersoftheEnglish
discoursecommunitydonotrequireanyfluencyoraccuracyatall.Itisguaranteedthat
afterseveralgrammaticalerrors,asentencewillinevitablybecomeincomprehensible.
Furthermore,accuracyisrequiredtomaintainanauthorsreputation.Withseveral

grammaticalerrors,anauthorsworkwilllosecredibilityandthismaydisruptthe
readersattention.
Membersofanydiscoursecommunityshouldmaintainaleveloffluencyand
accuracyinthelanguagethatisusedwithinthecommunitytocommunicate.Withoutthe
fundamentalskillstodoso,themembersrolewithinthecommunityisgreatly
diminished.

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