Institutional Repository | Satya Wacana Christian University: Investigation into Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation of English Department High Grade Point Average (GPA) Students

ABSTRACT
A series of research undertaken have revealed some interesting aspects regarding the effects
of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation toward students’ achievement. Students with high
achievement were typically believed as students who had high Grade Point Average (GPA).
Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation level of
English Department high GPA students. This study also aimed to find out how the intrinsic
and extrinsic motivation levels of the ED High GPA students correspond with their GPA.
Work Preference Inventory (WPI), proposed by Amabile, Hill, Hennessey and Tighe (1994)
was used in measuring students’ level of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The questionnaire
was administered to 30 fourth-year ED students who had high GPA. The interpretation of
intrinsic and extrinsic mean score results suggested by Degang (2010) and descriptive
narrative analysis were used to analyze the data. The result of this study revealed that the
highest number of ED high GPA students were highly intrinsically motivated (73.33%) and
highly extrinsically motivated (56.57%). It was also found that student who had the highest
combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation level among all of students (High IMHighest EM) gained the highest average GPA (3.97). The result of this study suggested that
higher on both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels appeared to lead to higher academic
achievement. It is important to note that not only high level of intrinsic motivation, but also
extrinsic motivation, was found to be important in achieving academic success.
Keywords: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, academic achievement, Grade Point
Average (GPA)