O n f e r e n c e

Short paper 
This study investigated the use of Google Docs with peer Taiwanese learners of English to 
translate an article in order to enhance their translation skills through communication 
concerning the translation procedure. Based on concepts proposed by Halliday (2004) 
and Liao (2006, 2007), the approach adopted for the current study followed three steps:
1.
Analyze the source content 
2.
Clarify the meaning 
3.
Restructure the target texts 
The purpose of the research was to understand whether an online collaborative 
translation activity using Google Docs had a 
significant effect on students’ abilities to 
carry out translation compared to using alternative methods, as well as to determine 
students’ perceptions of the process of acquiring English through Google Docs (Kim, 
2011; Shei, 2013).
Translation is a particularly challenging task for Taiwanese college students with a low 
level of English proficiency. In order to assist students in undertaking this task in the 
current study, learners worked collaboratively to build confidence and basic foundational 
skills before attempting to undertake translation tasks individually. Online tools such as 
Google Docs make it possible for learners to work collaboratively on a single translation 
task, and through this type of collaborative activity, it was proposed that learners would 
be able to develop their skills to make them more efficient in the translation process. 
The methodological challenges in designing and implementing the research are as 
follows: 
An concern in conducting experimental research is the skills and expertise of the 
researchers, and this was an issue in the current study as well. In order to double check 
if the experimental design and procedure were appropriate and complete, the English 
teacher had to consult a colleague whose expertise is Information Technology to help 
design the experiment. In this case, a person willing and able to take on this task was 
available, but it is conceivable that there are times when this is not possible. 
Another problem was that students are unfamiliar with online collaborative learning 
activity, especially when they use Google Docs. Students are far more familiar using their 
own computer to complete assigned work individually. This activity in the current study is 
different from their prior experience, in that they collaboratively edited the same 
document and they could edit the file simultaneously. Being a new experience to the 
learners, technical training is needed to be provided on an ongoing basis to ensure that 
they were capable of completing the task as required by the teacher. A related issue was 
that the teacher was also not completely familiar with the system, meaning that while 
they could operate the system, and as such there were some requests for help that the 
teacher was not able to assist with straight away without checking further. 
Added to these difficulties were logistical problems in that the computer lab room’s 
facilities were old and the software needed to be updated in order to complete the task, 
so students had to download Firefox in order to open Google Docs. This is an example of 
the infrastructure not matching the requirements for the task, which meant that changes 
had to be made to accommodate this. 
Finally, the students who participated in the study were technical unversity students, and 
as a result their attedance rate was not as high as hoped. A few of the students missed a 
number of classes, which resulted in data not being complete.

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-242- 
2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
A related issue was the variation on student proficiencies, with some students of a low 
level and others of a more intermediate level, resulting making comparisons difficult,