The research entitled the motivation of english department students learning english intended to discover the motivation within the students of english department of universitas syiah kuala and the relationship with the student’s achievement. this research limited its scope by analyzing the types of motivations the students have in learning english the influence of motivation on the srudents’ academic achievement. this research used the framework of deci and ryan (2000) that has two categories of concepts in self-determination theory as the framework of study. the method used in this study was qualitative with questionnaire and documentation as the research instrument. result showed that students of english department of universitas syiah kuala batch 2015 mainly possess the intrinsic motivation to learn english language. there are 18 students out of 30 respondents own the intrinsic motivation. there are also 7 students out of 30 proven to be the holder of extrinsic motivation. finally