Translating Tasks with a Focus on Current Issues during the Online Education Services

With the outbreak of COVID-19, online education services suddenly became part of our education environment. Under the circumstances, online education has received positive results for its convenience. However, practical yet feasible classroom design based on online education was not suggested or explored from the learners’ point of view. Therefore, this research aimed to find out if translation tasks with a focus on current issues can enhance the self-studying learners under such unexpected circumstances. Also, if different proficiency levels had any effects, this was also explored. Results show that learners who completed the translation task for the first time felt that focusing on current issues: environmental and climate issues, could be a helpful tool to enhance their learning during the online education services. Next, high proficiency group revealed that although they were not familiar with the translation task, they felt that such task with a focus on current issues would be helpful for improving their extended writing skills. The low proficiency group also agreed on the usefulness of focusing on current issues during the pandemic. The results can provide practical suggestions for the learners and for pedagogical use for the instructors during the online education services.