Differences in English language learning between intrinsically and extrinsically motivated groups of humanities and science engineering high school students

The problem. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of academic background, either Humanities or Science/Engineering, on Taiwanese high school students' attitudes and motivation toward English language learning and the effects of these factors on English achievement. Further, this study attempts to explore how learners' motivation toward English learning and their language achievement are related.;Method. Participants included 211 high school seniors: The Humanities group included 115 participants and the Science Engineering group included 96 participants. This research utilized one 5-point Likert Scale questionnaire consisting of 28 items and a questionnaire containing 7 open-ended questions concerning learners' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation toward learning English, given twice to participants with an eighth month interval between administrations. The quantitative analysis of the 28-item questionnaire was conducted through descriptive statistics, T-tests, and Pearson correlations in order to indicate (1) whether a relationship existed between students' intrinsic (or extrinsic) motivation and their language achievement, and (2) whether there was a significant change in each groups' language scores and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation scores.;Results. The quantitative analysis revealed that extrinsic motivation is dominant for both groups. The Humanities group had higher mean language scores on the initial test than the Science Engineering group. Both groups' intrinsic motivation maintained a relationship with their language achievement eight months later. Over time there were significant changes in the Humanities group's language proficiency and in the Science Engineering group's intrinsic motivation. The qualitative analysis provided detailed information enriching the quantitative results. The results of this study may help to explain the relationship between students' motivation and their language achievement, and provide English teachers with a better understanding of the relationship between students' motivation toward English learning and their language performance.