Mary Grantham O'Brien

Cross-linguistic differences in prosodic cues to syntactic disambiguation in German and English

This study examined whether late-learning English-German L2 learners and late-learning German-English L2 learners use prosodic cues to disambiguate temporarily ambiguous L1 and L2 sentences during speech production. Experiments 1a and 1b showed that English-German L2 learners and German-English L2 learners used a pitch rise and pitch accent to disambiguate prepositional phrase-attachment sentences in German. However, the same participants, as well as monolingual English speakers, only used pitch accent to disambiguate similar English sentences. Taken together, these results indicate the L2 learners used prosody to disambiguate sentences in both of their languages and did not fully transfer cues to disambiguation from their L1 to their L2. The results have implications for the acquisition of L2 prosody and the interaction between prosody and meaning in L2 production.

Understanding multilingualism and its implications.

The worlds demographics are in a state of flux. Approximately half of the worlds population is bilingual (Grosjean, 2010). Just over half of all Europeans speak a language other than the official language in a given country, and 25% of them report that they are able to hold a conversation in at least two additional languages (European Commission, 2012, p. 18). Bi- and multilingualism are also the reality in North America. Grosjean (2012) estimates that 20% of Americans are bilingual. In 2011, over 20% of Canadians reported speaking a mother tongue other than English or French, and the number of Canadians who report being bilingual is rising rapidly (Statistics Canada, 2012). While the causes of increased bi- and multilingualism vary, the repercussions of this demographic shift are wide reaching. In August 2013 the Language Research Centre at the University of Calgary brought together a range of experts working on issues related to the acquisition of multiple languages to consider the implications of multilingualism in our society. Discussions at the conference entitled “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Multilingualism” were focused around three key areas: language acquisition, psycholinguistic research methods, and second language pedagogy and literacy development. These broad fields are represented in this issue of Frontiers.

Prediciting the Behavior of Game Players - Space Syntax and Urban Planning Theory as a Predictive Tool in Game Design

Abstract—In this research, a virtual world of an Austrian town centre was created to teach German language commands to high school students. Urban planning and space syntax theory offers interesting insights into the strategies game players employ when looking for the correct path through an urban space. Specifically, the path of game players lost in a virtual urban space can be predicted. The research findings from this investigation suggests that the urban plan and character of the architectural space in a game may be helpful in predicting the first line of action taken by game players as they navigate through a virtual world in which verbal clues may not be understood.