Procrastination in learning activities of students at university of languages and international studies, vietnam national university, hanoi = trì hoãn trong hoạt Động học tập của sinh viên tại trường Đại học ngoại ngữ, Đại học quốc gia hà nội

Procrastination in learning activities of students at university of languages and international studies, vietnam national university, hanoi = trì hoãn trong hoạt Động học tập của sinh viên tại trường Đại học ngoại ngữ, Đại học quốc gia hà nội

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

GRADUATION THESIS

PROCRASTINATION IN LEARNING ACTIVITIES OF STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES,

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

Supervisor: Ph.D Ta Nhat Anh Student: Phan Dinh Kien Course: QH2018.F1.J3

Ha Noi, 2022

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

GRADUATION THESIS

TRÌ HOÃN TRONG HOẠT ĐỘNG HỌC TẬP CỦA SINH VIÊN TẠI TRƯỜNG

ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

GIÁO VIÊN: Ph.D Ta Nhat Anh SINH VIÊN: Phan Dinh Kien NIÊN KHÓA: QH2018.F1.J3

Ha Noi, 2022

SUPERVISOR'S APPROVAL

“I hereby approve that the thesis in its current form is ready for committee examination as a requirement for the Bachelor of Japanese degree at the University of Languages and International Studies”

Signature of supervisor 1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Ms Ta Nhat Anh whose enthusiasm to help and guide me so well during the process of doing this research has been my great source of inspiration In the process of doing the research, if I still have any mistakes, I hope you both forgive me!

Next, I would like to thank the third and the fourth year students of University Of Languages And International Studies (ULIS) for helping me complete the surveys included in the research so that I can collect enough information and data to complete my graduation thesis

Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to my family and my friends! They have always been by my side, encouraging and helping me a lot since the first day of starting my research

TABLE OF CONTENTS PREAMBLE

1.2 Several factors are involved in procrastination 6

1.2.1 Personality models and procrastination 6

1.2.2 Features of quests with procrastination 7

1.3 Procrastination in student learning activities 8

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH ORGANIZATION AND METHODS

2.2.4 Data processing by mathematical statistics method 11 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Degree of procrastination in learning tasks 12

3.2 Survey on the causes of student procrastination 14

3.3 How students deal with being late for deadlines 18

Abstract

Procrastination is the act of delaying or putting off tasks until the last minute, or past their deadline Some researchers define procrastination as a "form of self-regulation failure characterized by the irrational delay of tasks despite potentially negative consequences." No matter how well-organized and committed you are, chances are that you have found yourself frittering away hours on trivial pursuits (watching TV, updating your Facebook status, shopping online) when you should have been spending that time on work or school-related projects

Whether you're putting off finishing a project for work, avoiding homework assignments, or ignoring household chores, procrastination can have a major impact on your job, your grades, and your life If you’ve ever put off an important task by, say, alphabetizing your spice drawer, you know it wouldn’t be fair to describe yourself as lazy After all, alphabetizing requires focus and effort — and hey, maybe you even went the extra mile to wipe down each bottle before putting it back And it’s not like you’re hanging out with friends or watching Netflix You’re cleaning — something your parents would be proud of! This isn’t laziness or bad time management This is procrastination

My research will study about procrastination in learning activities of students at University of Languages and International Studies

PREAMBLE

1 Reason for choosing research problem

In learning, procrastination is always one of the common problems and hinders learning effectiveness as well as leads to psychological stress for students

According to Rabin, Fogel, & Nutter-Upham (2011), 30% to 60% of American students have a habit of procrastinating in studying

According to the authors Steel, (2007) Klassen, Krawchuk, & Rajani (2008); Steel & Klingsieck (2016) Procrastination causes many negative consequences for students' work, study and quality of life

Stell (2007) has shown that procrastination induces feelings of shame and guilt, increased anxiety levels (Carden, Bryant, & Moss, 2004), stress (Tice & Baumeister, 1997) and depression (Fletts) , Haghbin, & Pychyl, 2016) in students

In fact, the habits associated with procrastination make students less effective in their studies and also affect their physical and mental health The delay in doing the assigned homework will cause the homework to be piled up, causing students to increase staying up late, reducing the time to sleep This is very harmful to health as well as reducing work efficiency However, in Vietnam, there have not been many studies on the problem of procrastination in student learning Therefore, it is necessary and meaningful

to learn about the procrastination status of students from which there are recommendations and solutions to limit this problem From the above reasons, we choose

"procrastination in students' learning tasks" as our research problem

2 Research purpose

Research based on theory and practice on the status of procrastination in studying of students at the ULIS From there, some recommendations are proposed to help students reduce procrastination and improve efficiency in study and work

3 Objects and research objects

- Research object: The reality of procrastination in student learning

We chose the survey at the ULIS, because the university has many different training

disciplines, which helps the research to be informative

4 Research tasks

- Building the theoretical basis of the topic such as: procrastination, procrastination in learning

- Survey on the status of procrastination in learning of students at ULIS

- Provide some recommendations to help reduce academic procrastination that third-year students at ULIS are facing

5 Scope of the study

- Limits on research subjects: the status of procrastination in learning

- Limit of research area: ULIS

- Limits on research subjects: Students of the Faculty of Chinese Language and Culture, Students of the Faculty of Korean Language and Culture and Students of the Faculty of Japanese Language and Culture

6 Research Methods

The topic uses a combination of different research methods including: document

research method, survey method by questionnaire, in-depth interview method, data processing method by statistical math In which the document research method helps to build the theoretical framework of the research; The survey method by questionnaire helps to get statistical information and the in-depth interview method helps to collect more qualitative information about the causes and reasons leading to student's procrastination in learning

7 Research hypothesis

- Students have procrastination with different study tasks

- There are many reasons that lead to students' procrastination with academic tasks

CHAPTER I: PROCRASSTINATION IN STUDENT LEARNING

1.1 Procrastination

1.1.1 The concept of procrastination

Procrastination is derived from the Latin verb "procrastinare" where "pro" means

"to support") and "crashtinus" (meaning "tomorrow" - "tomorrow")

Currently, there are many definitions of procrastination given, in general, the definitions often talk about delaying the completion time as a characteristic of procrastination

Specifically, Beswick (1988) said: "Procrastination is procrastination, depression can be found in all aspects of life, can interfere with one's career, study or life individual” [9] Meanwhile, Klingsieck (2013), supplementing and completing the definition of Steel (2007), considers procrastination as the deliberate delay of an intended course of action, despite the perception of negative outcomes These negative effects and accompanying negative consequences often overwhelm the benefits of procrastination [35] In addition, Milgram et al (1998) defined procrastination as a specific behavioral trait, or impairment, such as delaying a task or making a decision [39]

Silver (1974) showed that procrastination means that people who are procrastinating on a task are only pushing the task's time past the optimal time to start the task¹ in order to increase the likelihood of peak performance At this point, the time interval that is considered to be delayed has been determined and it is the optimal time to start the task¹ [51]

Although Silver's (1974) concept provides a clear timeline for delay, the purpose of the mentioned delay is one-sided Specifically, not everyone who procrastinates is for the sake of increasing the likelihood of high results, but in fact, they have self-control problems (Franz, 2020) that cause work to be delayed

Therefore, after reviewing the above definitions, we choose to combine the two definitions of Silver (1974) and Steel (2007) to give the definition of procrastination as

"Procrastination is the purposefully pushing the execution time beyond the optimal task start time despite the perceived negative consequences." as this definition includes

sufficient timelines to define procrastination along with the associated negative consequences The characteristics of procrastination are (1) intentional, personal and (2) illogical (the subject knows there are negative consequences but still does it) [51], [54]

- Not really focused and dedicated to work

- Laziness, not high determination

- Excessive self-indulgence

- Easily distracted by things other than work

- Tired, depressed and do not want to do the work as planned

- Don't know where to start work but can't find a solution

- Misjudging the nature and time to perform the work

- Subjective, overconfident in own abilities and wasting time

- Have a habit of procrastinating for a long time but do not recognize and overcome

- Influence from people around

1.2 Several factors are involved in procrastination

Steel (2007) classifies the causes of procrastination into four main groups: task characteristics, individual differences, outcomes, and demographics [54] Accordingly, task characteristics are the nature of work and activities to be completed Individual differences include factors such as traits, aptitudes, and conscientiousness The results were considered in two parts: mood and performance, and whether procrastination affected their mood and academic performance What are the three demographic factors associated with procrastination: gender, age, and year/time to complete the task? (The older people get, the less people procrastinate, men tend to procrastinate more than women, and five recent studies show higher procrastination?)

1.2.1 Personality models and procrastination

In this direction, researchers often focus on understanding the relationship between retention and personality traits in a five-factor model including openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and psychoticism and the characteristic variables associated with each of these personality traits This is the approach from the point of view of differential psychology - treating procrastination as a personality trait or

a behavioral predisposition rather than situation-dependent behaviors (Klingsieck, 2013a) However, to explain the phenomenon of procrastination, besides this point of view, there are other perspectives, which are the environmental or situational perspective, the clinical psychology perspective, and the clinical psychology perspective motivation and self-control (Klingsieck, 2013a)

In a meta-analysis by Steel (2007) of 250 peer-reviewed articles on procrastination, mainly from psychology, procrastination was found to correlate with several personality traits, consists of:

- (i) Low conscientiousness (Johnson, & Bloom, 1995; Milgram, MeyTal, & Levison, 1998)

- (ii) Inefficiency and low self-esteem (Low self-efficacy and selfesteem) (Milgram et al., 1998)

- (iii) Irrational beliefs (Brownlow, & Reasinger, 2000; Soloman, & Rothblum, 1984)

- (iv) Disability self-acceptance (Ferrari, & Tice, 2000; Milgram et al., 1998)

- (v) Impulsivity (Blatt, & Quinlan, 1967; Schouwenburg, & Lay, 1995)

- (vi) Emotions:

+ Anxiety (Rothblum, Solomon, & Murakami, 1986; van Eerde, 2003);

+ Depression (van Eerde, 2003);

+ frustration (Blunt, & Pychyl, 2000);

+ Stress (Tice, & Baumeister, 1997);

+ Sin (Fee, & Tangney, 2000; Pychyl, Lee, Thibodeau, & Blunt, 2000)

1.2.2 Features of quests with procrastination

Solomon and Rothblum (1984) concluded that learning procrastination may be task dependent [53] According to their survey of college students taking an introductory

psychology course, aversion to homework was one of the two main causes of procrastination Furthermore, the task distaste factor included dislike of participation in learning activities and lack of energy to participate These findings lead them to conclude that there are two groups of procrastinators at the college level: (a) a relatively small but extremely homogeneous group of students who reported procrastination as a result of fear

of failure, and (b) a relatively heterogeneous group of students who reported procrastination as a result of task aversion

According to Blunt (2000), three aspects related to task aversion in all stages of learning are: boredom, frustration and resentment [10]

Milgram (1995) suggested that procrastination can increase when students feel the task they are doing is boring [39] This interpretation is reinforced by the work of Hermon, Grossman-Baklash and Sela (1991) (cited in Milgram, 1995), who demonstrated that among tasks of the interesting nature, easy, difficult difficult and boring, boring tasks were most associated with the degree of procrastination [39]

Sheldon and Kasser (1995) suggested that to minimize frustration, individuals can engage in distracting activities such as watching television [51] This interpretation is supported by research by Blunt (2000), who shows that when procrastinating, individuals rate their current activities (eg, watching television, playing video games) is less disruptive than the activities they are supposed to do (eg, studying for exams, doing homework) [10] As a result, academic procrastination will occur as students will choose distracting activities to reduce frustration with assignments

Regarding resentment, in this view, procrastination occurs when individuals are not satisfied with having to participate in learning activities that are not really enjoyable Procrastination is an avoidance of activities where the individual feels forced by others However, to date, there have been no clear studies on the link between resentment and procrastination

1.3 Procrastination in student learning activities

1.3.1 Student learning activities

According to the University of Oxford, learning activities are defined as follows:

- Learning Activity: A specific human activity driven by a voluntary goal to acquire new knowledge, skills, techniques, values, behavioral patterns, and most types of activities determined

- Student learning activities: The process by which students acquire knowledge and skills

in a university environment The scope of study covers many areas, not only theoretical knowledge but also practical skills

According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam, students' learning tasks will include:

- Carry out learning and training tasks according to the school's educational and training programs and plans; Actively proactive in self-study, research, creativity, self-training in morality and lifestyle

- Comply with the guidelines and policies of the Party, the laws of the State and the regulations, rules and regulations of the University

According to the modern teaching concept of Oxford University, students' classroom activities can be understood as their participation in classroom learning tasks, expressed

in three aspects including cognition, behavior behavior and attitude In the credit-based training environment, the lessons are methodically conducted by the lecturers according

to the interactive pedagogical method, in addition to self-study activities and the students' level of participation in learning activities Class staff can be considered as the most important factor determining the quality of class hours

1.3.2 Procrastination in student learning

Studies on procrastination in defining learning activities often define this concept as delay in activities taking place in school More specifically, studies on procrastination in learning activities have introduced the concept of this phenomenon as follows:

- Procrastination on learning tasks related to the individual's self-awareness that he or she needs to perform a learning task or perform a learning activity, but for various reasons

did not motivate push yourself to complete the work within the expected time frame (Ackerman & Gross, 2005) [5]

- Procrastination in the school context is considered academic procrastination Steel and Klingsieck (2016) define this term as the voluntary act of delaying learning despite the anticipation of undesirable outcomes [54]

Through the above concepts, we choose the concept "Procrastination in learning tasks refers to the individual's self-awareness that he or she needs to perform a learning task or perform a learning activity , but for various reasons didn't push myself to get the job done within the scheduled time frame"

a learning activity, but for different reasons, did not push themselves to complete the work within the expected time frame” In chapter 1, we also clarified the concepts related

to student learning activities at the same time Several factors influence student procrastination

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH ORGANIZATION AND METHODS

2.1 Research organization

2.1.1 Theoretical research

- Conduct research on domestic and foreign documents related to the research content + Systematize some basic theoretical problems related to student learning delay and reasons for procrastination

+ An overview of some typical studies by domestic and foreign authors on the problem of procrastination in student learning

+ Learn the scales of student procrastination

- Contents of theoretical research:

+ Define the concept of procrastination and related concepts

+ Analyze, synthesize, and evaluate research works of domestic and foreign authors on the problem of procrastination in student learning and the causes of procrastination

2.1.2 Practical research

The implementation of the practical research was conducted from December 2021 to February 2022 In this process, we build research tools including questionnaires, in-depth interviews Conduct pilot surveys, edit questionnaires, interviews, improve research tools and conduct surveys

2.2 Research Methods

2.2.1 Document research methods

This method is used to systematize some basic theoretical problems related to procrastination in student learning and the reasons for procrastination

2.2.2 Questionnaire survey method

From the content systematized in the theoretical framework, we proceed to build a questionnaire in accordance with the research content, focusing on understanding the problems related to student learning procrastination

2.2.3 In-depth interview method

This method aims to supplement, check and clarify the collected information focusing on the reasons leading to student learning delay

- Method of conducting: Interviewing 10 students selected from the case study method and using a list of 3 questions to better understand the reasons for the participants' choice

of answers Semi-structured interviews took place in the form of 1-1 through Zoom

meeting software

2.2.4 Data processing by mathematical statistics method

Calculate the percentage of data collected from the survey using a questionnaire to analyze the status of student procrastination and the reasons for procrastination, confirming the research hypothesis of the topic