I teach English with the #GradedDirectMethod of #IARichards. He was developing a #PictorialNotation for leaning foreign languages with his #LanguageThroughPictures books starting with #EnglishThroughPictures in 1945. Learners can narrate sequences of their drawings with English sentences using 3 tenses of take, put, and give combined with off, on, to, in, and from. These basic constructs are widely useful. There must be an equivalent approach to learn programming.
https://www.gdm-japan.net/introduction/gdm-history/