T h is stud y was devoted to examining st udents ' ori e ntation s and moti vation to learn EFLrnat Ad m as Col lege. An attempt has bee n made to fe r ret o ut thes e con s tructs vis-a-vis oth errnvariab les such as atti tudes a nd learners' mot ivatio nal intensity. The find ings of the stud yrnwere fe lt to be usefu l for Engl ish course designers, in struc to rs (teac h ers) , students , andrnhigher in st itutes such as Admas Co ll ege.rnPartic ipants of the st udy cons isted of 150 freslUllan regul a r d ip loma st udents e nro ll ed forrnco ll ege Eng li sh co urse and 10 E ng li sh in stru ctors. The stu dy used a q uest ionna ire surveyrnof th ese partic ip ants as th e pr inc ipa l too l o f da ta co ll ec ti o n . Th ere were two ,rnquestionna ires: one for th e st udents an d a parall el one fo r the in s tructors. Fo ll ow- uprnin te rv iews and class room observations yie lded . further (suppl emental) inp ut for th erna nalysis of the research find ings . T he instruments were adapted from pertinent sou rcesrna n d piloted prior to the ac tual study. T he student s' qu estionnai re and interview werernadm in istered i n Amharic to guarantee free and spo nta neo us respo nses.rnAfter t he data co ll ect ion came to an end, the data were co ll ated a nd ana lyzed. Thernques ti o nnaire data were analyzed usin g d esc ripti ve st ati s ti cs a nd one-way ANOV A test.rnT he interview and classroom observati on data we re analyzed using frequenc ies andrnqu alitative descrip tion.rnThe resu lt s indi cated th at In th is co ntex t whe re EFL is la rgely an academic matter,rnstud ents' integrat ive orientations of learni ng the language emer ged even s l ig h tly morernimportant th an th e inst r u m en ta l o n es. T he c lose re latio nship a mo n gst th e it ems of thernsa m e ori e ntation type or between the two o rientatio n types imp li ed the importa nce of therntwo goals for students in leam in g EFL.rnT he resu lt s also revealed the s tudents' mot iva ti on to learn E FL was accou nt ed for by thernorientations behi nd. T he st udents' respecti ve ly ex hibited hi gh in tri nsic / in tegrat ive andrnex trin s iclinstrum enta l motivation to leam the lang u age vis-a-v is the integrative andrnin s trum enta l o ri e n tations reported.Besides, the students' high desire to learn the language by expending much effort; thernpositive attit ude towards the Engli sh speake rs and the learnin g situ at ion ; and co nficiencernin the language seemed to ex pl ain their signifi cant mot ivation.rnHowever, some misconceptions that could suppress stud ents' moti vation to learn EFLrnwere documented. These included: stud ents' misconception of learning a specifi ed bodyrnof language items in a linear fashion, being laughed at while speaking, and perfol111ingrnpoor on exams. The instructors' mi sconceptions of employing extrin sic moti vationalrnstrategies were also cmcial. In additi on, the instructors' little attempt to provide periodicrnfeedback and the inadequacy of the course to complement stud ents' goals were found tornfrustrate students' motivation to learn ,t he language.rnThe results entire ly posited th at academically orientated students in this context had manyrnpressing goals (reasons) for learning EFL. This calls for the importance of knowing thesernreasons and the affective variables involved to understand students' moti vation. In lightrnof the findings, it was reasonably suggested that priority should be given to complementrnstudents' various EFL learning and fo ster their motivation. Towards thi s end, improvingrnthe cUITiculum, designing support courses and classes, and conducting continuousrnappraisal of the curriculum are wOlth the effort by the course developers, instmctors, andrnhigher institutes such as Admas College.