Das Handbuch erläutert auf 720 Seiten alle relevanten Themen zu dem sich rasant entwickelnden Forschungsfeld. Behandelt werden die verschiedenen theoretischen Grundlagen, wesentlichen Aufgaben sowie wichtige Forschungsergebnisse und praktische Anwendungsmöglichkeiten.

Bernard Spolsky was Professor at McGill University, Indiana University, the University of New Mexico and Bar-Ilan University; he retired in 2000. He has written and edited two dozen books, including Educational Linguistics: an Introduction (1978), Conditions for Second Language Learning (1989), The Languages of Jerusalem (1991), Measured Words (1995), Sociolinguistics (1998), The Languages of Israel (1999), Concise Encyclopedia of Educational Linguistics (1999) and Language Policy (2004), and has published about 200 articles and chapters.

Francis M. Hult is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He has also taught at Lund University in Sweden and at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. He is the founder and manager of the Educational Linguistics List. His publications have appeared in the journals World Englishes (with King and Berg), Language Policy, and Current Issues in Language Planning.