The Musicality of Ethnolingustics Cognitive Benefits

Background: The cognitive benefits of learning native language and bilingualism project focuses on Arvanites, a bilingual population in Greece that speak Arvanitika, a dialect of Albanian language still spoken in vast areas of Greece. It is classified as a minority and an endagered language and is considered in risk of extinction. The project aims to examine possible cognitive benefits of bilingualism in native speakers of Arvanitika, including the ability for further learning and acquisition of other languages. We aim to achieve statistically important number of Arvanites equal Bilingual and monolingual to be interview using a up to date questionnare and TEA or TEA like cognitive screening.

Method: This is a cross-sectional population study including bilingual and monolingual speakers without exclusion criteria and with respects to gender equality, stratified random sampling reponders in the areas where Arvanite population traditionally lived achieving a sample number statistically important of responders in a population unofficially ranging from 200000-16000000 or 15% of population. The samples are taken from areas where traditionally there are Arvanites with more than 500 villages in different province of Greece dominantly in Epirus, Follorina, Castoria Eubea, Attica, Corinth, Boetia, Argolis, Messenia, Acheae, Peloponnese, Thraka, and settlements in Andros, Hydra, Poros, Spetsai, Salamis Participants are voluntary; they have the right to refuse participate and to withdraw their participation and data any time. To be eligible, potential participants have to be an old adult with no previous diagnosis of dementia, bilingual in Arvanitika and Greek or otherwise. The method of the population surveys is personal in-home survey with in identified areas with significant population of Arvanites with Dr. Genc Struga and supervisor Co- Director of “Bilingualisem matters” Dr. Thomas Bak in collaboration with “Bilingualsem matters” Thessaloniki Team .The team will use their Greek colleagues connections and snowball sampling approach. This method is commonly used in social sciences when investigating hard-to-reach groups. Existing subjects are asked to nominate further subjects known to them, so the sample increases in size like a rolling snowball.

Conclusion: In Albania, language characteristics and ethnography enhance the native neuroplasticity, making it easier for Albanian speaker to learn another language and to pronounce such new language with a more accurate accent. This factor is independent of CPH (critical period hypothesis) influencing L2 (second language) acquisition and with better pronunciation or accent.

Further more to benefits of speaking native language, studies have confirmed that bilinguals performed significantly better than predicted from their baseline cognitive abilities, with strongest effects on general intelligence and reading.