1. Introduction
Universiti Selangor (UNISEL) is one of the tertiary institutions in Malaysia that offers various English courses to its students. Mainstream English Courses in UNISEL covers Grammar, Reading, Writing, and Speaking skills training during the course, with specific reference to TESL course . By the end of the course, students should be able to use the skills acquired in the respective components in communicating effectively.
The lack of interest among students from various courses aside from TESL programme in learning English has become a major concern among English language lecturers because the students are supposed to excel in this subject since the medium of instruction in UNISEL is in English. If the UNISEL students were tested on their attitudes and motivation toward learning English Language, will the same results prevail?
There have been some opinions that if a student does not feel the need of acquiring the second language to function either within or outside his/her community, most probably this student will have a negative attitude and will not be interested in learning the. The objectives of this study are two-folds, namely to identify the learners’ motivation, whether it is extrinsic or intrinsic.
The term motivation is based on the Latin verb for “move”, which denotes direction, duration and intensity in achieving their aim or goals.
Intrinsic motivation is characterized as more of a self-determined event where learners take responsibility for their own learning and have more of a sense of control that cause people to challenge themselves, just as young children do when exploring or encountering a new object for the first time. In the second language acquisition field, intrinsic motivation can be stimulated when teachers become more of a manager or facilitator of language learning so that the students become more inclined to set their own goals and monitor their own progress which benefits not only themselves, but the other language learners in the class with whom they interact in small group and paired work. Intrinsically motivated students therefore tend to be more creative and resourceful in using a second language because they are less reliant on the teacher and rather personalize their own learning because the learning involves their natural interest. Meanwhile, extrinsic motivation notes that students will usually respond only when the environment tempts them with the opportunity to get rewards or avoid punishments. When a learner receives an incentive or tangible reward to participate or to complete an activity, this is referred to as extrinsic motivation. When someone is extrinsically motivated, the individual spends time to complete an activity as a means to an end or to receive a reward of some type. Maslow (1970) claimed that intrinsic motivation is clearly superior to extrinsic motivation.