The present requirements of the labour market determine the need for high-quality foreign-language schooling of students of extralinguistic faculties whose competitiveness directly depends on the level of proficiency in a foreign language. In this regard, motivation is considered as one of the key factors securing success in learning a foreign language. According to the authors, alternative assessment of students’ learning progress aims to increase their motivation for learning a foreign language. The study involved 180 undergraduates of Vyatka State University majoring in Biology, Chemical technology and Ecology. The following methods were used in the course of the research: analysis, synthesis, generalisation, observation, experimental training, questioning, analysis of quantitative and qualitative results of the research. Pearson’s criterion χ2 was used for statistical processing of the results. The authors identified the following forms and methods of alternative assessment: electronic portfolio (iPortfolio), work in pairs (We Create Activity), group work project (iLearn & Teach Project), technical report (Technical report), imitation of a job interview (Mock job interview), that are approximated to real situations in the future engineers’ professional sphere and match the undergraduates’ professional interests. It was empirically proved that alternative assessment increases the students’ level of intrinsic motivation to learning a foreign language, as well as the level of motivation for mastering a profession and acquiring due knowledge. The control experiment results point at significant statistical differences between the ascertaining and the control stages of the experiment (χ2 = 17.69; at χ2crit = 5.99). The significance of the research lies in the used approach “assessment as learning” to solving the problem of increasing the undergraduates’ motivation for the study of a foreign language. This approach not only provided for the natural-science-profile students’ orientation towards professional interests and due motivation, but also made it possible to improve the learners’ communicative competence in the English language, overcome psychological barriers, develop cognitive activity and critical reasoning.