Using Automated Translating Machine to Encourage Target Vocabulary Learning During COVID-19

The outbreak of COVID-19 has dramatically changed the dynamics of learning environment. Various researches have examined the implications and impacts of such changes and the results were met with mixed findings. Although the learners inevitably preferred face to face interaction and direct communication, under the circumstances they were willing to continue with the current devices if multiple modes of communication devices could be added to the current environment. The paper aimed to utilize the use of Automated Translating Machines (ATM), such as Naver Papago and Google Translator, to learners and to examine whether such devices could further aid the learners under such circumstances. Results showed that the high proficiency group only used the ATMs for reference purposes and such devices did not yield meaningful findings even with certain target vocabularies. However, low proficiency group learners were able to utilize the device to learn certain target vocabularies better than the conventional vocabulary learning method. This shows that ATMs can be utilized with the online-learning to teach certain target vocabularies to the low proficiency group learners.