Misconception: students forget about language-specific or paradigm-specific material (e.g., new/delete or types) when they switch between languages that don’t use the same concepts.
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- Remind students when they switch languages about language features that weren’t necessary in their last language (e.g. delete isn’t necessary or possible in Java).
- This also applies for returning to a language previously covered, like returning to C++ after working in python and forgetting typed variables.
- Students going from Java back to C/C++ might forget how to initialize arrays.
- In Java students could write:
- int [] numbers = new int [10];
- But in C++ they have to write:
- int numbers[10];
- Students going from Python back to Java might forget that they need type declarations.
- In Python they could write
- x = 3;
- but in Java they would need to write
- int x = 3;
- It is really common to forget the type declaration!