ELTA Journal • December 2014 • Volume 2, No. 2 E-mail correspondence: newsletter.elta@gmail.com Copyright ELTA Journal 2014 www.eltajournal.org.rs Page 23 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation for Learning English as a Foreign Language by Aleksandra Oletić, Stockholm University / Stockholm, Sweden Nina Ilić, University of Novi Sad / Novi Sad, Serbia Abstract In the last few years, the topic of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation has raised a lot of interest in EFL learning. Intrinsic and/or extrinsic motivation and the correlation between motivation and success in learning a foreign language have been examined. The goal of this paper is to examine how the self-determination framework (Deci and Ryan, 2000) for L2 learning motivation extends to a group of Serbian language learners of English. The focus of our research is on examining intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of Serbian students of English, with the aim of answering the question whether or not the students are intrinsically/extrinsically motivated and to what extent. High school students and university students were given the Post-Experimental Intrinsic Inventory test and the method used for analyzing the results was descriptive statistics. The results obtained show that there are generally low levels of intrinsic motivation present among both high school and university students. It was expected that the results for Interest/Enjoyment would be more decisively in favor of university students, but this was not the case. The differences in motivation are minimal in relation to gender, even though female students show an increase of intrinsic motivation across the age variable. Key words: motivation, intrinsic, extrinsic, students Apstrakt U poslednjih nekoliko godina interesovanje za temu intrinzične i ekstrinzične motivacije stalno raste u oblasti učenja engleskog kao stranog jezika. Istražuju se intrinzična i/ili ekstrinzična motivacija i korelacija između motivacije i uspeha u učenju stranog jezika. Cilj ovog rada je da istraži kako se teorija samoodređenja (Deci i Rajan, 2000)u okviru motivacije za učenje stranog jezika može primeniti na grupu učenika engleskog jezika iz Srbije. Naše istraživanje se bavi ispitivanjem intrinzičke i ekstrinzičke motivacije učenika srednjih škola i studenata engleskog jezika u Srbiji, sa ciljem dobijanja odgovora na pitanje da li su učenici intrinzički/ekstrinzički orijentisani i u kojoj meri. Učenici srednje škole i studenti su ispitani metodom posteksperimentalnog intinzičkog inventara ličnosti, a rezultati su obrađeni deskriptivnim statističkim tehnikama. Dobijeni rezultati pokazuju da je kako kod učenika srednjih škola tako i kod studenata prisutan relativno nizak nivo intrinzičke motivacije. Očekivalo se da će rezulatati za varijablu Interesovanje/ Uživanje biti u značajnoj meri u korist studenata, ali ovo nije bio slučaj. Razlike u motivaciji su minimalne kada je u pitanju pol kao nezavisna varijabla, iako ženski studenti pokazuju malo veću sklonost ka intinzičkoj motivaciji. Ključne reči: motivacija, intrinzična, ekstrinzična, učenici 1. Introduction In the last few years, the topic of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation has raised a lot of interest in EFL learning. The goal of this paper is to examine how the self- determination framework for L2 learning motivation extends to a group of Serbian language learners of English. The focus of our research is on examining intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of Serbian students of English, with the aim of answering the question whether or not the students are intrinsically/extrinsically motivated and to what extent. 2. Literature Review 2.1. Definition and theories