Building on the belief that literature is the mirror that reflects a peoples culture, the present research seeks to investigate the effect of studying English literature, British or American, on shaping students motivation to learn English for either instrumental or integrative purposes. It sets out of two hypotheses, namely(1): 1st year students are more instrumentally motivated to study literature as a means for achieving certain goals, and(2) 4th year students are more integratively motivated when compared to first year students. To verify such hypotheses, an(8-item) questionnaire on both types of motivation, integrative and instrumental, has been administered to a random sample of 1st and 4th year students at the Dept. of English, College of Arts, University of Mosul at the end of the second term of the academic year 2004-2005. The results show that 1st year students have a higher level of instrumental motivation compared to 4th year students; yet the latter, i.e. 4th year students are more integratively motivated than 1st year students in their viewing of the study of English literature as means for achieving pure instrumental benefits or identifying with English society and its culture. Such results may be ascribed to the fact that 4th year students have been studying different subjects of English literature during their 4-year stay at the college; a point that has helped in developing more motivation to integrate with the foreign society, its way of life, culture and behaviour.