Third language selection by using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method /Nur Azyyati Azmi, Nurzawanah Raihah Zamri and Nurul Nabilah Azmi

Taking a third language course is compulsory for new undergraduate students to fulfil the requirement of the program. Thus, selection third language is a crucial process for them to bring satisfaction in learning third language among them. The objectives of this research are to determine the main criteria that considered for third language selection and also to determine the third language that has high demand among the students through the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. In this research, third language selection is conducted for new undergraduate students in Universiti Teknologi MARA Seremban. AHP considered a set of criteria and alternatives according to the problem in decision making. In this regard, six criteria are identified, namely Ease of Leaming, Culture, Purpose of Language, Interest of Student, Parents Influence and Friend Influence. Third language such as Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, Japan, German, French and Italian are the decision alternatives. By evaluating the result from AHP, Mandarin become the most preferred third language with weightage, 0.1918. Among all the criteria, Ease of Leaming become the main criteria that influence the students in third language selection.