In learning language, two types of motivation, integrative and instrumental motivation, play a pivotal role and thus, identifying which motivation is dominant in a classroom by a teacher is essential. This study investigated the types of first year students’ motivation in learning English and their reasons for having those types of motivation. It involved 77 first year students, consisting 56 females and 21 males who enrolled in the 2017 academic year at the English Education of Syiah Kuala University. To obtain the data, close-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interview were used as the research instruments. The findings showed that the mean score of instrumental motivation (44,18 or 50.46%) is higher than that of integrative motivation (43.38 or 49.54%). However, the difference was not significant since both groups were merely different by 0.92%. Thus, it can be concluded that the students enrolling in English department were integratively and instrumentally motivated. Moreover, the students’ reasons for having these motivations are also presented. Based on the findings, recommendations for educators and other researchers are provided. Finally, it is hoped that the result of this study can be beneficial for developing teaching and learning English at English Department of Syiah Kuala University.