Translated Writing: Error Analysis and Learner’s Motivational Factors Examined

Under the current pandemic, it is difficult to actively undergo general English programs to college students. As general English programs are usually run on large lecture basis, they have mostly been switched to online classes. Thus, immediate feedback and support to increase student motivation and engagement have become quite challenging. And this has inevitably witnessed the demise of motivation in learning. One of the difficulties the second language learners are facing are the lack of contact from the instructors. Under such circumstances, easily usable device that provides simple yet immediate feedback could be effective in increasing learner motivation. Machine translators are free and easily accessible to the learners so one of the device; Google Translator, was used in this research for learner correction. Findings show that the participants in the high group, especially those who made few grammatical errors, were not motivated to use the translated method. On the other hand, the low proficiency group felt motivated to use the translated method for future use under such circumstance. The finding is meaningful in that when face-to-face learning is minimized, translated writing method can increase not only the motivation of the learners but also exposure and practical learning time for the low proficiency group of learners.