Predominance of intrinsic motivation as a predictor of effective foreign languages acquisition in higher education

Introduction. The authors study the balance between students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in managing their educational activities. The purpose of the article is to justify the predominance of intrinsic motivation as a predictor of effective foreign language acquisition within the university course. Materials and Methods. The study was conducted using the methods of psychological experiment and educational action research. They allowed the authors to reveal the predominance of students’ internal motivation for managing their learning activities within the framework of English as a Foreign Language course. Methods of mathematical statistics were used to obtain and analyze quantitative data. Observation, interviews and written feedbacks were utilized to obtain qualitative data about the predominance of intrinsic motivation. Results. The authors developed criteria for studying students’ extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in order to characterize their cognitive activities. Frequency and percentage analyses indicated the medium level of students’ extrinsic motivation, while the level of intrinsic motivation is relatively high. Conclusions. The authors found that students’ academic performance is determined by the balance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors. The research confirms the correlation between the level of students’ intrinsic motivation and their academic performance.