How Integrating Coding Can Enhance World Language Studies

As a Spanish and STEAM educator, I have many opportunities to try different technologies with my students, but coding in my Spanish classes never crossed my mind. Thankfully, one day, students in my Spanish classes saw what I was working on in my STEAM course and gave me a gentle nudge.

It may be surprising, but I have found that world language classrooms are a natural place to integrate coding. Language learning is challenging and has similarities to computer science and computational thinking. Learning a language requires pattern recognition, sequencing, logic, and iteration, all of which are also core elements of computer science. Computer science becomes meaningful when it is integrated, contextual, and human-centered. And it is the same for language learning. Students learn it more meaningfully by telling stories, solving problems, expressing their ideas, and connecting with people.

When students see coding as a more authentic way to tell stories and express their ideas, language learning and coding skill development become empowering and engaging opportunities for all students.

Accessible Tools That Boost Confidence in Language Learning

One of the biggest myths about coding is that it requires expensive software and products or highly technical expertise. In reality, there are many accessible, student-friendly tools that make coding more approachable across grade levels and content areas. And there are ways to teach about coding without needing technology at all!

For example, instructors can start by teaching students that coding is a language, and then comparing the target language to the coding language. You can compare grammar rules to code syntax. For example, sentence order demonstrates what an algorithm is. When I introduce students to the formation of commands in the target language, I compare it to giving directions, just as functions are used in coding. Students can practice writing step-by-step instructions, using only commands, to better understand this concept. A syntax error is like using an incorrect verb tense.

I like to have students write algorithms for daily tasks and describe how to make a sandwich using only commands. Then, we test whether their instructions actually work. Another idea is to have students rearrange sentences to make them grammatically correct. I then talk to them about how word order can change meaning or lead to misunderstandings. Through these examples, I can connect students to algorithms and compare how computers follow instructions. In the same way, we read sentences, and meaning can be lost if the structure is incorrect.

These activities give us the opportunity to reflect on whether the instructions worked, and if something went wrong, to pause and ask why. Did we miss a step or have the wrong order? These are some ways to simulate fixing an algorithm or “debugging,” as you would in coding. They are just a few low-lift, no-tech ways to connect language and coding, helping to reinforce grammar, sentence sequencing, and clarity, and also build computational thinking skills.

Tools to learn language skills and coding

In a world language classroom, students show their learning by using coding to communicate meaning in the target language. They create interactive stories where the use of appropriate vocabulary, verb forms, and tenses, as well as correct sentence order, is required to demonstrate proficiency, just as a program would require specific language and sequencing to work. Here are two tools I have used in my classes.

Delightex. With Delightex, students can design immersive digital worlds and interactive experiences. Coding is a tool for creativity and problem-solving rather than an isolated skill. When my Spanish students asked me about using coding, I created an opportunity for them to work collaboratively on a Spanish project using Delightex.

Students in Spanish II used Delightex to narrate a story in the past tense. This is something they tend to struggle with each year when learning past-tense verb use, conjugation, and reflexive verbs, so I decided to try something different. For their projects, each group had to write a story that included different characters, objects, backgrounds, speech, and text bubbles, along with audio, and they had to animate the characters and objects. They also needed to create interaction between the characters, which required some coding.

They learned how to code to make the story more engaging, and through this opportunity, they retained the content better than with other methods I had been using in prior years. Delightex recently added features such as AI buddies, which are AI-powered 3D characters that can talk, react, and exchange ideas through real-time animations. Students can even generate 360-degree images to make it even more authentic. These new capabilities help world language educators to address AI literacy in the classroom, in addition to the main focus of the acquisition of language skills.

Elementari. Elementari, which is a digital storytelling platform, is a favorite among my students. It is a great option for storytelling, literacy, and world languages. In Spanish class, students practice the target language by designing interactive stories that combine writing, visuals, and block-based coding. The main goal, of course, is to create their narrative, build and reinforce their language skills, and spark creativity and computational thinking. Throughout the year, students complete projects in which they narrate childhood experiences, write a fairy tale, talk about their family, or share their own personal stories. These projects provide a unique space for them to be creative and develop language skills in more authentic and meaningful ways.

Why coding matters

Computer science doesn’t belong in a silo. It needs to be the focus for more than an hour of code or a week during the year. When coding is integrated purposefully through storytelling, language, design, and creativity, it is a powerful way for students to think, create, and solve problems in more meaningful contexts.

Meaningfully integrating computer science requires a shift from thinking of it as “teaching coding” to using coding as a tool for demonstrating learning. Coding helps build confidence, boost engagement in learning, and prepare students with essential skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and resilience to be successful in the future.

I have often said that we don’t have to be experts in everything, and educators aren’t expected to become programmers overnight. We just need to find the right tools that align with our teaching goals, know enough to get the students started, and learn from them.