Behaviorism theory proposes reward and punishment to help student succeed in learning. Based on that, this study wanted to see students’ perception on the effect of reward and punishment implemented at English Education Department of University Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (EED UMY). The research question of this study is what is the students’ perception on the effect of reward and punishment implemented at EED UMY toward student motivation? This research adopted a qualitative approach that took a place at EED UMY and took four student as the participants of this study. The participants were chosen through purposive sampling in which the participants should have received both reward and punishment. Regarding with the effect of reward, this study resulted various findings; first, rewards increase student motivation to learn and work harder; second, rewards increase students’ interest in a particular subject; and third, rewards motivate students to repeat their good performance. Meanwhile, the study on punishment found that; first, punishments increase student motivation in learning; second, punishments decrease student motivation; third, punishments do not have a significant effect on student motivation; and forth, students will not repeat their mistake after being punished. In conclusion, this study can state that students perceive rewards affect their motivation positively, while the effect of punishment can be either positive or negative, and it is sometimes not powerful enough to affect student motivation.