This study explores whether there are any differences between the scores of amotivation, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation of a middle school group and a high school group. It examines the effects of two factors on the difference in the scores of each motivation subtype: whether students receive private education, and when students first start learning English. T-test results indicate higher scores for the middle school group in all the subtypes than for the high school group. Statistical significance was not obtained in support of the effect of private education. The group that started learning English in the third grade of elementary school showed a higher amotivation mean score than the group that started in the first or second grade. Also, amotivation was proven to be a viable variable to group subjects with in addition to extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation, supporting the motivation system proposed in Selfdetermination Theory. These results imply that teachers need to understand motivation as a dynamic construct and attempt to promote it through groupspecific approaches in English classrooms.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the motivational factors of Korean middle and high school students in learning English. Additionally, the current study examined whether there were any differences between high school students and middle school students in therms of the motivational subtypes. 172 middle and high school students participated in this study. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to address the research questions. For analysis, data was collected through a questionnaire adopted from the Language Learning Orientation Scale (LLOS) of Noels et al. (2003). The results indicated that the hypothesized model, which includes seven motivational sub-types of self- determination theory, was acceptable to measure Korean secondary students’ motivational factors, showing good fits in most fit indices. The seven dimensions of motivation that the current study explored were amotivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, intrinsic motivation-accomplishment, intrinsic motivationknowledge, and intrinsic motivation-stimulus. Also, the study found that the difference between the middle school group and the high school group was not significant in terms of their motivational orientation. A meaningful implication of this study was the scale’s possible use by secondary English teachers.