This study reports 15 types of activities that EFL, linguistics and translation instructors at a sample of Saudi universities used in distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples include searching for linguistic and translation key terms and concepts, problem-solving questions, online debates, summarizing a research paper, attending a thesis defense, inviting guest speakers, project-based assignments, connecting writing and speaking topics with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, collecting and analyzing translation errors, translating Wikipedia articles, interpreting contests, linguistic analyses of family speech and videos, student-created podcasts and digital stories, dynamic online speaking activities, and integrating technology such as Slido and Padlet. The participating students found those activities beneficial, enjoyable, and helpful. Their skills improved as a result of reading, preparing and synthesizing information and the feedback received.