Interaction between Academic Motivation and Student Teachers’ Academic Achievement

This study sought to explore the interactions between academic motivation and academic achievement. Academic Motivation Scale (Vallerand et al., 1992) was administered to 256 English Language Teaching department students at a major state university in Ankara, Turkey. Academic achievement was measured through participants’ GPA. The statistical analysis showed that participants were mostly extrinsically motivated (identified regulation), followed by intrinsic motivation (knowledge) and extrinsic motivation (external regulation). Participants reported very low amotivation. GPA correlated negatively with amotivation; positively with extrinsic identified regulation and intrinsic motivation dimensionsof knowledge and accomplishment. Amotivation emerged as the only predictor of GPA.