Teaching Computing to K-12 Emergent Bilinguals: Identified Challenges and Opportunities

Emergent bilingual (EB) students are a growing demographic within the United States, with an increasing number enrolling in K-12 computing courses. Since programming languages are primarily grounded in English, K-12 computing teachers must balance and tailor their instruction to meet the needs of these students. Teachers reported a lack of sufficient computing education resources to guide their instruction for teaching computing to EB students. Through a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with eight K-12 computing teachers who have EB students in their classrooms, we identified some of the challenges they face and the strategies they use to support them. Our analysis revealed three challenges: (1) students experience cognitive overload from translating between English and their native language, (2) terminology has subtle differences across disciplines (e.g., 'variable' in Math vs. Science), and (3) educators' low computing self-efficacy. Teachers counter these challenges with two implemented strategies: (1) providing multiple ways for EB students to engage with content to prevent them from becoming overwhelmed, and (2) offering multiple modalities to help translate computing concepts. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion on inclusive computing education by offering insights into educators' needs and potential solutions for supporting EB students' learning in computing.