The necessity and necessity of learning a foreign language in order not to get lost in the rapid circulation of information and to follow the developments cannot be denied. Therefore, it is thought that it is important to know the foreign language motivations and achievement orientations in determining the underlying behaviors of students in academic achievement in foreign language education. Motivation, which is the key to success or failure in learning a second language such as excitement, determination and continuity (Dörnyei, 2001a), is defined as an individual's desire to learn the language and the degree of desire to learn the language through the sense of satisfaction received from this activity (Gardner, 1985: 10).Researchers looking for the reasons why students with the same intelligence and ability show success at different levels explain this situation with individuals' adopting different goals and motivation to succeed at different levels, in other words, with “achievement orientation theory” (Ames, 1984; Dweck, 1986; Maehr, 1983; Nicholls; , 1984). Instead of classifying students as motivated or demotivated, the main reason why individuals are motivated to achieve success takes into account their academic achievements, the goals they set for themselves and their attempts to achieve these goals (Akın 2006a, Eryenen 2008 ); identifying the reasons for the success of students in school and in the classroom (Elliot and McGregor, 2001; Kaliski et al., 2006; Kaplan and Maehr, 2007; Miller 2004) and how they evaluate the competence they have about achievement (Kaliski et al. Miller 2004). Initial research on achievement orientations suggests that the belief that talent can and cannot be improved, the perceived ability level (Ames, 1992; Dweck, 1986; Elliot and Church, 1997), students’ attitudes and behaviors towards knowledge, skills, duties and responsibilities presented in academic environment affect being “performance” or “learning” orientatied (Dweck & Leggett, 1988: 256). As a result of the researches, it is concluded that performance orientation is related to success and some variables and performance orientation is divided into two groups as performance-approach and performance-avoidance (Butler, 1992; Elliot 1999; Elliot and Dweck, 1988; Elliot and Harackiwicz 1996; Elliot and Harackiwicz 1996; McGregor 2001). Belief that talent cannot be improved, fear of failure and low talent expectation point to performance-avoidance achievement orientation and belief that talent cannot be improved, fear of failure, need for success and high talent expectation point to performance-approach achievement orientation (Elliot, 1999). The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between foreign language motivation and achievement orientations of university preparatory class students according to the variables of gender and compulsory and optional status of preparatory education. The research was conducted in a relational screening model that aimed to determine the interchange between two and more variables (Karasar, 2013). In the study, to obtain data on the demographic variables of prospective teachers, Personal Information Questionnaire prepared by the researcher was used. In the study conducted on 280 university English preparatory class students, “Achievement Orientation Scale” (AOS) developed by Midgley et al. (1998) and adapted to Turkish by Akın and Çetin (2007) was used. The Achievement Orientation Scale (AOS) used in the research consists of 17 items and dimensions of learning, performance-avoidance and performance-approach orientations: The items 1-6 are learning orientation, 7-12 items are performance-approach orientation, and 13-17 items are performanceavoidance orientation. The scale has a 5-point Likert-type rating such as “1 = Never”, “2 = Rarely”, “3 = Frequently”, “4 = Usually” and “5 = Always”. The high score obtained from each sub-dimension of the scale indicates that the individual has the relevant achievement orientation. In the current research, the scores obtained from the dimensions of "Learning Orientation" and "PerformanceApproach Orientation": 6-14 low, 15-22 medium, 23-30 high; the scores obtained from the "performance-avoidance orientation" dimension were evaluated as low between 5-11, medium between 12-18, and high between 19-25. In the present study, the Cronbach alfa realibility of the learnin