"First language" is generally taken as a term of art in this sector. It is the first language we're teaching students who we expect to learn other languages as

"First language" is generally taken as a term of art in this sector. It is the first language we're teaching students who we expect to learn other languages as well, so emphasis on "first" here unlike for say a "taster" course in another discipline where you're learning only say, Python, with no expectation you will ever learn other languages. Edited to expand: For a First Language you can choose to pick a language that you don't expect your students will actually end up using, for pedagogic reasons, just as we might spend time proving fundamental things in Mathematics even though those are already proved and you'll never do that "in real life" after studying, a language which has good properties for learning about programming is not necessarily also the right language to actually write yet another web site, database front end, AI chat bot and video streaming service. I've spent considerable time thinking about this and I believe Oxford and Cambridge were right to choose an ML as First Language. The MLs have desirable properties for teaching, even if you expect your students to end up writing Python or C++ after they graduate. I am entirely certain that my exposure to an ML at University made it much easier to pick up Rust than it was for people whose nearest previous languages were C and C++