Support Services Provided to Undergraduate and Graduate English Language Learners: A Content Analysis of 100 Colleges and Universities

Abstract

One of the major challenges that Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) in the United States faces is the provision of support services for English Language Learners (ELL). This population is comprised of international students, immigrants, and Generation 1.5. Understanding the linguistic and cultural barriers of this growing population is crucial for IHLs so that they can provide support services that meet their needs. In order to identify and understand the types of support services that IHLs are implementing for ELLs, an a-priori content analysis was conducted on the websites of 100 IHLs that were ranked amongst the top in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best College Rankings for 2019. The study found that among the various linguistic support services, English for Speakers of Other languages (ESOL) classes and American Culture and Conversations Class were at the top. International Education Week (IEW) and Heritage and Cultural Celebrations were the top cultural events at IHLs. The topics related to federal regulations, such as visa types, immigration policies, tax preparation, and personal identification, were addressed by the vast majority of the IHLs researched. The study also found that institutional characteristics, such as classification type, student enrollment size, and size of endowment were predictors of the number of ELL support services provided. Institutions that were characterized as international offered more ELL support services than those categorized as non-international IHLs.