Abstract
That motivation plays an important role in language learning has been explored in many studies but what are those components of motivation for foreign language learners and how they affect learning behavior are not much reported. A seven-point Likert Scale questionnaire comprising five parts was developed for perceptual motivational variables to collect data from 321 students for this study. The present study identified seven motivational components of foreign language learners to be positively and significantly correlated with their motivated behavior. The findings also indicated that extrinsic and intrinsic orientations were not antagonistic but complementary to each other in motivating learners to perform activities in learning a foreign language. The findings also suggested that learning experience predicted best learners’ behavior in learning English as a foreign language. A suggestion based on the findings was that classifying the primary reasons of language learners under extrinsic and intrinsic motivation exclusively without differing degrees of their motivational orientations is not sufficient to portray the drive for learners’ learning behavior when teaching a foreign language.