my site is devoted to game making at low cost. For a beginner I would say start out in a very basic language (why not QBASIC?) just to get the general idea of programming WHILE playing around with Klick & Play or MMF (though it is a bit tougher to learn). The when K&P gets too limmiting, get into DarkBasic or Jamagic. She should also probably buy some books on programming and game development. I would definetely have to say that 3D Game Studio is a darn good programming language (rather scripter, C++ is its lang).
Another Method is Genesis 3D (Now Jet3D). Now this may sound a little off the top since it's C++ driven, but there is a pseudo company that is distributing a freeware program for creating Genesis 3D games WITHOUT having to know C++. I think it's called Real Gaming tools or something. Think it's been mentioned on this forum too.
1.00 GHZ processor, 256 MB RAM, GeForce 3 64MB, SB Live!, 8 cans of soda per day