This edited volume seeks to increase the availability of research-derived knowledge and educational applications in the field of second-language learning. Virginia Gonzalez offers a rare and highly creative approach to second language acquisition research by applying contemporary cognitive psychology theory as a framework for investigating bilingual issues. The text offers a coherent and unified philosophy and context, presenting original research studies that provide a multidimensional socio-educational view to second-language learning and instruction in children and adults. Gonzalez and her colleagues assume the identity of the “Ethnic-Researcher,” thereby emphasizing the need to include cultural and linguistic factors when studying, assessing, and instructing second-language learners.

The text presents a blend of methodology, both qualitative and statistical, and offers new instruments and models for studying traditional and contemporary problems of second language acquisition. Unlike other texts on the subject, Language and Cognitive Development in Second Language Learning goes beyond just discussing these issues at the polemical/political level and provides a cohesive view to the scientific study of second language learning from a developmental perspective that includes both children and adults.