Computer programming as an educational tool in the English classroom a preliminary study

Computational thinking, a problem solving method that uses computer science techniques, has recently become mainstream as many governments and major Internet companies are promoting programming skills among children. However, little is known about how programming affects other aspects of life beyond the acquired programming skills. In this regard, this paper summarizes the work done in the school San Diego and San Vicente (Madrid, Spain) during the third quarter of the year 2013/2014, where we conducted a study with four groups of students in 4th and 5th grade to measure to what extent the use of computer programming in English classes can be an interesting educational tool with a positive impact on the learning otucome of the students. The results show that the groups working with programming activities improved more than the groups using traditional resources. Moreover, when asked via surveys at the end of the study, most students felt that coding was a positive influence, not only for learning English, but for developing other important skills as teamwork and learning to learn.