A Rating System to Help our Selection?

I had a discussion with one of my colleagues (Eric Beuzet) the other day regarding the process we will follow to choose our new language. I am not sure if what follows is close to what he was suggesting but this is what I came away with:

Could we come up with a rating system that could simplify our task and maybe render the whole process as objective as possible?

For example there could be a grading system like this: 3 = important 2 = somewhat important 1 = not important.

And the questions could be of the following type: 1) How important is it that the new language belongs to the less difficult languages to learn? 2) How important is it that we cater to the demand of our parents/students? 3) How important is it that we cater to the wishes of the rest of the faculty? 4) How important is it that the language be obvious on the political scene today? 5) How important is it that the new language be obvious on the economic scene today? 6) How important is it that the new language facilitate communication within the local Los Angeles area? 7) How important is it that the language . . .

Then the department could take this survey and the scores could help us channel our attention in one direction more than another. So for example if the score for question 1 is 2.9, we may want to get away from the study of Arabic that is ranked at the highest level of difficulty by the US Department of State. If the answer to question 6 is 1.3, then we should not feel too pressured to start offering Korean for example.

I don't know if that make sense to you guys. Just post you comments below . . . let us know.

Comments

  1. AmadoMay 12, 2010 at 11:27 PM

    I also like the idea. These questions will define what it is that we want to know from our students. At the same time, it keeps us current of what is the reality and the needs of the outside world. We need to expand our horizons and really believe that our students can do more with whatever language they choose. At the end the benefactor will be the student on whatever he chooses to do with his career. It is my hope that by learning a language, the student can open doors of opportunities for him and therefore he can understand a different perspective.

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