7.1. FINDINGS ON MOTIVATION
One goal of this paper was to determine the effects of studying TOEIC on South Korean
university student motivation. The hypothesis was that student motivation to study English is
negatively impacted by TOEIC instruction. The results of the surveys showed a number of
trends. First year students were primarily motivated to study TOEIC because of university
requirements. In older students, the primary motivating factor was to get a job. These results
indicate that the students are primarily extrinsically motivated. Only a small percentage of
students noted that they are motivated to study TOEIC primarily because of their interest in
learning English. Lightbown and Spada (2001: 33) argue that in situations where external
pressure is the main motivating factor, “internal motivation may be minimal and general
attitudes towards learning may be negative”. If, as suggested in the previous section; students
do not correlate studying TOEIC with studying English; negative attitudes towards studying
TOEIC are likely to have little impact on attitudes towards studying English. However,
students for whom this is not the case may experience a decrease in motivation, which
supports this paper’s hypothesis.