Content area
This study was influenced by the University of Trinidad & Tobago first year students' perception that programming is difficult. The study started with researching publications on problems faced when teaching an introductory programming course which represented the lecturers' perspective. Interviews with some 1st year programming students and analyses of the solutions submitted by these students represented the students' perspective. The approach being proposed is teaching the programming language as teaching a foreign language. The issue of problem solving in programming was separated from programming. This was dealt with prior to programming through using Input Processing Output (IPO) table. The results obtained from using this approach for six years are shown.