Internal and external motivation for studying a foreign language in non-linguistic students of university

The article describes the features of motivation for learning a foreign language among non-linguistic first-year students at a classical university. External motivation associated with duty, responsibility, and understanding of the significance of the acquired profession for the whole society, as well as internal motivation associated with the desire of students to occupy a certain profitable and prestigious position in the future and decent remuneration for their work, are considered in the work. The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the results of the study, where the content and features of the motivation of first-year students to learn a foreign language were identified. The author made up and conducted a remote survey, which included statements about various motives that encourage students to study a foreign language at a university. The sample consisted of 85 randomly selected students studying at two institutes of Volgograd State University. When the responses to the survey were received, they showed a greater degree of internal motivation for students’ educational activities when studying a foreign language at a university. As a result of a comparative analysis, it was discovered that students with prevailing internal motivation have a higher level of foreign language proficiency than students with predominant external motivation.