Procrastination in Language Learning Process: A Constructive Strategy or Merely a Destructive Time Loss?

Many individuals fail to perform the responsibilities devolved to them within the expected time or at least do them near the deadline. The so-called procrastination in accomplishment of academic tasks has often been considered a frustrating phenomenon which commonly results in undesirable outcomes. However, some students believe that near-deadline performance leads to better results. Focusing on EFL learners, the researchers in this study followed the classical Grounded Theory Approach and investigated whether procrastination always has destructive effects on their performance and behavior or it can be applied as a strategy to gain better outcomes. To do so, they interviewed 43 EFL learners at intermediate and advanced levels of proficiency with prior experience of procrastination and, taking a constant comparative method, analyzed the collected data through three stages of coding (i.e., open, selective, and theoretical). The results indicated that although most respondents did not reject the destructive consequences of procrastination on their language learning, several EFL learners pointed to constructive consequences of procrastination in their learning. Moreover, some strategies for adjusting the destructive effects of procrastination and even for transforming them to constructive consequences emerged from the data. In this way, the present study led to the development of the grounded theory of language learning procrastination. This theory covered two themes of Consequences, including Constructive Language Learning Procrastination and Destructive Language Learning Procrastination, and Overcoming Strategies, including Internal and External Strategies. The resultant theory can open a new horizon to deal with EFL learners’ dilatory behaviors.