The interference of the Arabic prepositions in the Emirati Eng- lish

The bonds of England and the UAE date back to over 220 years ago. This article explores the interference of Arabic prepositions in the English used in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and their occurrences in light of gender and level of education, two important social variables related to linguistic behavior. To do so, participants will translate 20 sentences in Arabic into English as well as fill in 30 gaps in sentences in English with the missing prepositions. We will also experiment how musical intelligence may improve Emiratis’ performance regarding preposition. An experiment will be carried out to verify if participants from the experimental group, who will receive training on prepositions through music, obtain better results compared to the control group, who will receive training through a more traditional way (by listening to the instructor and repeating).


Introduction
This study aims to analyze the utilization of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) as an instrument to enhance learning. MI was presented by the American developmental psychologist and research professor Howard Gardner in 1983 in his notable book Frames of Mind [1] in which he claims that individuals possess eight intelligences (bodily-kinesthetic, musical, linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist [2]) and not only one as most psychologists prior to his theory advocated. The focus of this paper will be on musical intelligence.
Musical intelligence is the capacity to perceive the meter, tone, and melody. This intelligence enables us to perceive, create, reproduce, appreciate music patterns, identify differences between musical pitches, among other abilities. composers, pianists, instrument makers, musicians in general, vocalist, and sensitive listeners [1] are examples of musical intelligent people.
This study uses musical intelligence to improve Emirati participants' use of prepositions in English. According to Campbell, L., Campbell, D. and Dickinson, D. [3], there are two main ways to implement musical intelligence in the classrooms: The multimodal and the arts-based models. The first one, more pragmatic is the multimodal model, which uses the multiple intelligences as entry points (i.e., the utilization of learners' strengths -one of the eight Multiple Intelligences -to learn and understand academic content. In the case of our study we will use musical intelligence as an entry point to understand and improve prepositions.) into disciplinary content. Our study makes use of the multimodal model, not because we believe this is the best and most important aspect of musical intelligence, but because we are not policy makers, therefore we cannot implement music classes in schools, which leads us to the other model of schools, the arts-based one, in which Multiple Intelligences are dealt as sound reasons for learning in and through the arts, arts as legitimate disciplines. The fact that the study was carried out in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also contributes to this multimodal model as this country has only recently been adapting to new methodologies and international schools; moreover, 20 years ago over 90% of schools in the UAE were koranic-based and there were no institutes with music class or music schools available in the country [4].

3.
Are there differences in the results obtained by the participants regarding their educational background and gender?

4.
Are the results similar to the ones obtained in our previous study [20], in which the content taught through dance (experimental groups 1 and 2, composed of ballet and flamenco dancers respectively) obtained a statistically meaningful difference compared to the control group (group of participants trained in a traditional way, by reading and repeating the content)?

Historical Review
The following historical analysis is intended to explain the three periods of linguistic change in the UAE. According to Schneider's [21] 'dynamic model' of postcolonial English, three significant phases of language change can be identified in the UAE. Initially, the 'foundation phase' (1809 -1966) when English was introduced; a second period of 'exonormative stabilization'  and the period of 'normalization' (2004 till the present moment). This theoretical framework looks into the structure of Modern standard Arabic and Emirati Dialect and their influence in the Emirati English.

The foundation period: the introduction of English (1809-1966)
The bonds between the UAE and Britain date back over 220 years. The British had no interest in the Gulf except for the port of Muscat. However, in 1797 this reality changed; British Indian shipping was threatened by Arabs of the lower Gulf. The British Governments of Bombay and India considered the maritime toll-levying and raiding as coercion and piracy. The Qasimi, the ruling family of Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah (nowadays these are two of the Emirates that constitute the UAE) and Lingah were believed to be behind these raids [22]. In 1809 and 1819 the British sent expeditions to several Qasimi ports, this can be considered the first linguistic phase [21], the 'foundation phase' when locals had the first contacts with English. The bonds the UAE have with England went further when in 1820 the British imposed the General Treaty, which were agreements with individual Emirates resulting in an area known as "The Trucial States", (nowadays the UAE). The Emirates agreed to cede land exclusively to the United Kingdom and to avoid engagement with other governments, unless they were allowed by the British. In return, the British promised to protect the coast and land in the event of an attack. Once Britain accepted the role of protector, the rulers honored their duties and commitments as protégés. Two further treaties in 1888 and in 1892 devolved external relations to the British in return for protectorate status.
These treaties, as well as the Treaty of Perpetual Maritime Peace, signed in 1853, which had been proposed by the Ruler of Sharjah seven years before, led to peace and prosperity along the coast and supported an active trade in high quality natural pearls which lasted until the 1930s. In the early 1930s the first oil company teams carried out geological surveys in the UAE, after they had discovered oil in Iran (1908) and Bahrain (1932). Such discoveries contributed to Britain's decision to continue in the Gulf. After the Second World War, Britain actively promoted the development of all the Gulf Shaikhdoms and Oman. All the oil companies established in the Trucial States were Britishowned. Gulf rulers were stimulated to invest their surplus oil income in Britain. They also made the use of aircraft to connect Britain to the Gulf, as well as to protect the latter. The RAF (Royal Air Force) and Imperial Airways, now British Airways had their bases in Sharjah (UAE). In 1941 the British post agency opened its first agency in Dubai. From 1948 on, all mail posted from the Trucial States used British stamps portraying the British monarch. Rules and British officials were heavily criticized by anti-colonialists around the world, including the UN General Assembly. To avoid that, the British government granted more freedom to the rulers. The rulers, however, feared the vulnerability that independence would bring.

The Exonormative stabilization: English as the language of administration and education (1966 -2004)
In 1966, Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan assumed authority in Abu Dhabi and started ruling the Trucial States. The British withdrew all their Troops two years later; however, the British settlers did not leave the area. The exploitation of oil and gas provided work for hundreds of the indigenous population and promoted fast development under the guidance of foreign professionals. In effect, all of the main directors of public works, education, medical services were Britons, and the army unit were led by British officers. AS Gulf cities grew, all the facilities, bridges and buildings were designed by British architects and engineers. The British Council was in charge of developing secondary education in most Gulf shaikhdoms and granted university scholarships for hundreds of Gulf students to study in Britain. Envelope of a Letter to England.
In 1966, the British decided not to be involved in the Trucial States anymore, which led the rulers of six Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Umm al-Quwain, Fujairah and Ajman) to found a Federation. They signed an agreement and on the 2 nd of December 1971 the United Arab Emirates was formally established. The seventh Emirate, Ra's al-Khaimah, joined the new federation one year later.
British Prime Minister Edward Heath did two things to ensure the protection of the Gulf after the withdrawal. First, a group to study the problem of defense in the area was established. This group suggested that America be encouraged to expand its military presence in the Indian Ocean. Second, he offered defense by providing British officers to help with military training and leadership. The British political agent in the Emirates was promoted to ambassador. Hundreds of Britishmen stayed in the Emirates as officers and civil servants administrating the police, airports, hospitals, and newly-formed militaries. Many remain there today. In 1988 there were 172 British loan service officers employed by the UAE Government [22, pg. 24.] According to Boyle [23,pg. 319], at the time of independence, the British community comprised a few thousand and nowadays reached about one hundred thousand. English became the lingua franca of the country: it was present in the oil and gas industry, aviation, shipping, commerce, it was the language of the South Asian migrant worker, who comprised a large section of the community. English was regarded as the language of new era for the autochthonous community [24]. The sharp rise in the number of foreigners made that the Emiratis themselves became a linguistic and ethnic minority in their own country. Prior to the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the non-gulf Arab population, which provided the professional workforce in fields such as education, engineering, and medicine throughout the Gulf, fell from 72% in 1975 to 29% in 2002 [25]. From 1990, these non-Gulf Arabs were replaced by professionals from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, who eventually comprised 50% of the Gulf workforce [25] increasing the number of English speakers in the UAE. Over one century of treaties with England has left traces in the Emirati Dialect. All the new technology and objects that were introduced by the Englishmen were unknown by the Emiratis, so they adopted many words from English, such as lift, light, glass, cycle (for bicycle) class, finish (meaning to quit the job or to be dismissed from work) and many others.

The nativization period (2004 until present)
'Nativization is Schneider's [21] contemporary period according to his 'dynamic model' relevant to the UAE. This period is ongoing and therefore, not yet well defined. As per Boyle [23], this third period of Schneider's 'dynamic model' started in 2004 when the Abu Dhabi government launched a diversity of economic plans: high-technology and heavy industry, nuclear power plants and expansion of luxury and cultural tourism. Such projects activated a speedy increase in the number of immigrants from 3.3 million in 2005 to 7.24 million in 2010 [26], i.e., over 89 percent of the present population in Dubai and Abu Dhabi is foreign-born [13 -16].

English as Lingua Franca
English is essential in the present situation in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is applied in a vast range of social interactions in most public places and services, such as restaurants, theaters, supermarkets, taxis, gas stations and shopping malls, private health care centers [16,27] , where Arabic is seldom spoken by the staff. Randall and Samimi [28, pp. 43-44] consider Dubai a relevant city for the analysis of English as a Lingua Franca'. In addition, children start learning English in both public and private schools as early as Kindergarten and is the main language at the university level [16,29].

Studies on prepositions in Emirati Dialect and Gulf English
The literature lacks studies on the prepositions in Emirati Dialect and Gulf English. We could find; however, Ghwaileh's study [32], which focused on errors made due to the negative transfer from Emirati Dialect and MSA while writing in English, revealed that when translating from L1 (Emirati Arabic) into L2 (English) most students encountered difficulties in translating prepositions. For instance, Emiratis literally say in English: 'I eat from the restaurant' when they mean 'I eat at a restaurant'. This happens because in Arabic the preposition min (from) is used:
This phenomenon occurs because there is a colossal mistake in most English books for Arabs regarding preposition: the most frequent prepositions in Arabic are translated into their main meaning in English. These prepositions are the following: However, these prepositions not always correspond to these translations. Therefore, it is common to find Emiratis and Arabs in general who have difficulties using the correct prepositions in English. Let us take a look at some other examples: Emiratis usually say: 'I am in my way' when they mean: 'I am on my way'. This happens due to the fact that the preposition fi is usually translated as in, as we previously explained.
Emiratis usually say in English: 'The library is near from the university', but they mean: 'the library is near the university'.
The literal translation is : The library is near from the university.
There are some prepositions which are different in Modern Standard Arabic and Emirati Dialect. Ghwaileh's study [32] revealed that when translating from L1 (Emirati Arabic) into L2 (English) most students encountered difficulties in translating the preposition until; 7ata in MSA, many times substituted by the preposition ‫لين‬ liin in Emirati: I stayed on the farm until the sunrise.
In the dialect version, most secondary students translated this sentence as: I stayed in the farm to the sunrise.
Next, the same students were given on a different day the same sentence to be translated, but now in MSA version:
Participants in Ghwaileh's study [32] made the same mistake they had made previously in the dialect-version sentence. This means that these Emiratis misuse prepositions when translating both from colloquial and standard Arabic into English due to lack of instruction and insufficient knowledge / input in the use of prepositions.

Theoretical Framework
The following literature shows how MI theory and more specifically, musical intelligence have been dealt with throughout the years and their implementation in the UAE and how these theories support this and similar studies.

Multiple Intelligences: The Brain and Language
Albert Einstein is reported to have started to speak extremely late; however, his initial silence may have made him see the world in a more detailed way. Numerous normal or close to normal children show particular difficulties in the learning of language. In some cases, the difficulty seems to be found mainly in auditory discrimination causing them to misarticulate.
The capacity to decode linguistic messages fast -a prerequisite for the understanding of normal speech -seems to rely on an intact left temporal lobe, thus injuries to, or the abnormal development of, this neural zone generally are sufficient to produce language disabilities. However, if the damage occurs during the first year of life, even if it affects the entire hemisphere of the brain, the child will be able to speak quite well. Early in life the brain plasticity enables language to develop in the right hemisphere, even at the cost of compromising other functions such as visual and spatial that would normally be localized there. Attentive examination of such children's linguistic strategies reveal that they are unique in relation to those of individuals who employ the normal language areas in the left hemisphere. In particular, individuals dependent upon the analytic mechanisms of the right hemisphere proceed almost entirely from semantic information: they decode sentences in the light of meanings of the principal lexical items, while proving unable to utilize cues of syntax. Only those children whose language exploits left hemisphere structures prove able to pay attention to syntactic cues such as word order. Both left and right hemidecorticates are able to understand sentences whose meaning can be inferred simply from knowledge of the meaning of substantives: The dog was struck by the jeep.
But only the individual with an intact left hemisphere can decode sentences where the critical difference in meaning inheres wholly in syntactic cues [1]: The jeep was hit by the bus.
Howard Gardner takes care not to term this capacity as an auditory-oral form of intelligence, given that deaf individuals can acquire natural language.
Many retarded children show and outstanding capacity to master language -mainly the phonological and syntactic aspects -though they may have relatively little of significance to utter. Other rare children, in spite of retardation or autism, prove able to read when they are only two or three. These "hyperlexic" children show, therefore, high linguistic intelligence. The reading is so compulsive that it is hard to stop. Regarding mathematical intelligence, one hyperlexic child studied by Fritz Dreifuss and Charles C. Mehegan could immediately tell the day of the week of remote historical dates, while another showed an excellent memory for numbers.

Musical intelligence
As explained in the introduction, Musical intelligence is the capacity of the skills used in composing, playing, remembering, feeling and understanding music [1]. People with musical intelligence are extremely sensitive to rhythm and sound. For instance, they can easily distinguish the sound of a Spanish guitar from that of an acoustic one. They think in terms of musical patterns. Individuals who possess high musical intelligence look for patterns in new information in order to increase learning. They also look for patterns in speech and language. They remember things by turning them into lyrics or rhymes. This study is based on using music to make participants remember the right prepositions in English.

Musical intelligence and autism
We have also mentioned the most outstanding musical savant in the professional literature Eddie Bonafe [8][9][10][11][12], who by the age of ten, had begun to display the ability to play works at the level of the Mozart sonatas. Not only does the literature address Eddie's case, but also of many talented musical savants. Another music talent was a child called Harriet, who could play "Happy Birthday" in the style of famous composers, such as Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi and Schubert. Harriet applied her musical intelligence in other ways -she knew, for instance, the personal history of the members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At the age of three, her mother called her by playing incomplete melodies, which the child would then complete with the appropriate tone in the proper octave [1]. Thomas Wiggins, widely known as "Blind Tom" [33 -35] was a famous musician in nineteenth-century America. Wiggins was born in Georgia and was apparently autistic, blind, and probably cognitively impaired. Wiggins was a skilled improviser and composer and, to judge from his performance repertoire, a highly accomplished pianist. His performances expressed his remarkable talents. Not only would he play famous works which posed significant technical challenges, but also works composed by himself, all from a repertoire of several thousand works played by heart upon request. His performances were extremely popular, and Wiggins displayed unusual verbal and physical behavior: walking and spinning around and making uncommon facial expressions [36][37][38]. Wiggins possessed tremendous musical memory and coordination, he would play back any work upon hearing it for the first time, simultaneously playing two different works (one with each hand) while singing a song, and perceiving all of the notes in complex harmonies. Another example of a blind and with developmental disability and extraordinary music talent is Leslie Lemke. Despite having good memory, the pieces Lemke performs are always short [7].
Autism is nowadays considered a comprehensive disorder rather than a medical problem or developmental disorder as it was classified in the 1940s.

Musical therapy
The literature is filled with research which suggest that listening to or singing songs may provide benefits for people with Alzheimer's disease as well as other sorts of dementia [39]. One study concluded that music interventions may be beneficial for gait, the timing of upper extremity function, communication outcomes, and quality of life after stroke [40]. Another study suggests that people with dementia who are in institutional care with at least five sessions of a music-based therapeutic intervention probably relieves depression and improves overall behavioral problems at the end of treatment, apart from improving emotional well-being and quality of life and relieve anxiety [41].
There are some clinics in the world that use music therapy to treat patients with Alzheimer and other dementia. The Mayo clinic in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota (USA) [42] as well as the Spanish association Music Association for Awakening (Música para despertar) [43]. The latter became extremely famous when one of its videos went viral on social and traditional media [44,45] in 2020. The video shows the former ballerina Marta Gonzalez listening to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. As she listens, she recalls the choreography and dances to Tchaikovsky's beat.
The literature is also filled with research of music being used during and after interventions [46,47] to alleviate pain, and preceding medical interventions to relieve uneasiness and discomfort. Not only does musical therapy help human beings, but it may also be beneficial for animals. Kaavan, an elephant in a zoo in Pakistan, was kept 35 years in captivity -being complete alone in the last 8 years. The chief veterinarian at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, explained that Kaavan had developed "stereotypical behavior where he swooshes his head and trunk from side to side for hours.". In order to prepare him for his release in December 2020, which comprised a 4,000km journey in a steel cage, he underwent music therapy in an attempt to tranquilize and motivate him [48,49]. This method is reportedly working. Several songs, genres were played to Kaavan, but Frank Sinatra's 'My Way' was his favorite; it reduced his anxiety and damaging behavior.

Participants
20 participants -10 male and 10 female -were randomly chosen to be the control group. 10 of them have only finished secondary public school. The other 10 have graduated from university or hold a master's degree as well.
20 participants -11 male and 9 female participants -who answered in the questionnaire (Appendix A) that they have music proclivities, ( i.e., they listen to music at least three times per week, they enjoy singing along with music) were chosen to be the experimental group. We would have preferably chosen any musicians such as viola players, pianists, violinists; however, we could not find any to comprise the experimental group. Regarding their level of education, 10 of them have completed secondary public school while the remaining participants hold a university or a master's degree. Participants in both groups aged from 29 to 38.

Method
It was investigated if there are any differences in performances between Emirati with music proclivities versus regular participants (students and alumni) when receiving training concerning prepositions. To demonstrate that learning through an individual's strength is more efficient than learning in the traditional way, participants were trained in two separate groups. The data for this part were obtained from six different training sessions, each session lasted 10 minutes. There was a pretest some minutes before the first session [see Appendixes B and C]. Participants had to translate the sentences in Appendix B into English (participants' sheets were black and white, in order to facilitate readers' understanding, Appendix B shows the prepositions which occur only in Arabic in green, that is, there is a preposition in Arabic while there is none in English; the prepositions that occur both in Arabic and in English are shown in red). Appendix C is composed of 30 sentences in English with gaps in which participants must fill in using the correct preposition. Posttest 1 was administered after session three and posttest 2 was administered after session six [see Appendixes B and C].
The training sessions for the control group was developed as follows: firstly, the instructor read the rules regarding prepositions (see Appendix D). Next, participants repeated all the sentences out loud. Thirdly, participants in the control group read the lyrics of the song made exclusively for this study [see Appendix E]. This song deals with the prepositions in context. The lyrics were read without listening to any music.
Regarding the training sessions for the experimental group, the first two steps were identical to the training session for the control group: the instructor read the sentences in Appendix D and them participants repeated them.
Then, participants sang the song made exclusively for this study [see Appendix E]. The melody used was a karaoke version of the song like a virgin, performed by the singer Madonna. A video on YouTube was exclusively created for this training (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_yVbr6kLhw)

Results and Discussion
As we mentioned in Table 1 (section 2.5) the most frequent prepositions in Arabic are translated into their main meaning in English. However, these prepositions not always correspond to these translations. Therefore, it is common to find Emiratis and Arabs in general who have difficulties using the correct prepositions in English. Let us take a look at some examples from our sentences from the pretest, posttest 1 and 2 (see Appendix B). Let us start by analyzing the negative transfer of the preposition "from" (min in Arabic): In the case of sentence 1 more than 90% answered I finish from work, as the verb in Arabic is antahi min (I finish from).
3. 'He is married from her', instead of saying 'I am married to her'.

Hwa mitazawij minha.
Our study is in line with Ghwaileh's findings [32] as we could confirm the same mistakes shown in his study as well as mistakes regarding other prepositions, which will be discussed below and more in depth in the Results and Discussion session. As the preposition ‫من‬ (min) is generally translated as "from", 92% of participants translated this sentence as "I wait / I am waiting from a long time. No participants used the present perfect progressive to translate this sentence, but present continuous or simple present, instead.
(wait for me) As for sentence 12, most students translated it as "wait me", as there is no preposition in its Arabic version.
The other cases of negative transfer into English will be discussed in the following section.

Pretest
In order to carry out the pretest, participants had to translate the sentences in Appendix B and complete the text with the correct preposition in Appendix C. The following Table 2. shows all the prepositions on extracted from Appendixes B and C. There are twenty participants in each group and ten phrases containing the preposition on. Therefore, each phrase can have a maximum of twenty correct answers. Let us analyze the first phrase: on a farm, extracted from Appendix C, sentence number 1. We find under the grid on a farm the number 0 for the control group, which means that no participants completed the gap with the preposition on. The same result was found in the experimental group, which also means that no participants completed the gap with the correct preposition. Regarding the next phrase on the island -extracted from Appendix C, sentence 2. -only one participant in the control group filled in the gap with the preposition on. There was a clear preference for the preposition in as all participants completed the form by using in YouTube, in the bus, in the farm, in an island (there was also one contestant who wrote Pat is from an island and it was considered correct). Regarding on the weekend (American English), we decided to include it on this list in the British version as "at the weekend". Actually, seven participants answered at the weekend. However, the remaining 33 participants answered in the weekend. In first of December was also by far the most used preposition, while 3 participants did not use any preposition: "see you the first of December." Regarding on sale, the participants either translated it as: this jeans has a discount or this jeans on sale. Although in Arabic the word jeans appeared also in plural " ‫هال‬ ‫جينز‬ ‫ات‬ / haljeanzat" -the suffix -at indicates plural -the demonstrative pronoun hal is used for both singular and plural in Emirati Arabic, meaning this or these. Most contestants also omitted the verb to be (these jeans are), as the verb to be in the present tense is absent in both MSA and in all the dialects of Arabic. Two contestants also answered for sale, instead.
Regarding the level of education, 49 out of the 53 correct answers were given by participants who hold either a university or a master's degree. In addition, 29 correct answers were performed by females and 24 by males. Let us now analyze Table 3, which deals with the preposition in. Both in and on Khair Street were considered correct answers. However, 36 participants opted for the preposition in.
As we can see, Emiratis tend to simplify the prepositions in, on and at by using only in when speaking Emirati English. In the case of in different colors, which is the least usual collocation on this list, three participants completed the sentence with the preposition at. In the case of the translation for the sentence "you can see it in the picture", 5 participants translated it as: "You can see the picture", instead. Because we could not encounter problems concerning the preposition in, we decided to disregard it in the following two posttests.
Regarding the level of education from the participants, the only eight mistakes were made by participants that do not hold a university degree. Five mistakes were made by males while four were made by female participants. With respect to the preposition at in Table 4, again Emiratis used the preposition in in most cases, instead. At Christmas was also substituted by the preposition on by two participants, maybe because of the collocation on Christmas day. With regard to the sentence I live at 234 Oxford street, most participants chose the preposition in and some did not add any preposition (I live 234 Oxford street). Maybe because many participants were businesspeople and they constantly exchange emails, the sentence "Email me at alramsa@email.com" was correct by more than half of the respondents. Although only one participant omitted the preposition at in the sentence "I finish work at 7", 32 participants translated the sentence literary: I finish from work at 7, as in Arabic the verb finish takes the preposition from. However, it is clear that this common collocation at + hour is common in Emirati English. The blank "laugh at" was mostly filled in by "laugh on", because in Emirati Arabic the expression is ‫علي..‬ ‫يضحك‬ / yaD7ak 3lay, which literally means laugh on me; some participants also filled in with the preposition from, "laugh from me". The sentence "My mom yells at me" obtained a similar performance to "laugh at me"; again, the preposition in Emirati Arabic is 3la (on) ‫.على‬ Nevertheless, most participants left it blank: "My mom yells me." While 3 answered Yells on me, translating it literally from Arabic.
With regard to good at, all contestants filled in this gap with the preposition in, as in Emirati Arabic they would use the preposition fi.
From the total of 100 right answer questions obtained in the training of the preposition at, 69 were given by participants holding a university or master's degree. 62 of the correct answers were given by female participants. As it is shown in Table 5, there are some phrases that were known by more than half of the participants while others were little known or unknown at all. Regarding sentence number 11 [see Appendix C] "you can pass the exam by preparing for it", most contestants left it blank. Five completed it with the preposition from, four with the preposition since and three with the preposition at. "Go by metro" was the preferred answer although many opted for the phrase "go in metro".
With regard to sentence number 15 'By mistake', extracted from Appendix C, in Arabic it is expressed by the preposition bi, which is mainly translated in English as with. One participant instead of filling in the blank added the letter -n to the noun mistake, which resulted in the sentence: 'she did it mistaken'. Other filled it in either with the indefinite article "a" (She did it a mistake), or with the pronoun "another" (She did it another mistake). Two participants completed the gap by using the preposition "for": She made it for mistake. The collocation by chance also takes the preposition bi in Arabic: Bi SSidfa ‫ب‬ ‫الصدفة‬ , which is pretty close to the MSA variant biSSudfa. It seems that this expression is widespread among Emiratis and maybe because by in English and bi in Arabic are similar, participants have assimilated it well. Two participants, however, left it blank.
The phrase "pay by credit card" was mostly completed with the preposition with. In Arabic "by credit card" would be "bi bitaqa / ‫ب‬ ‫بطاقة‬ ". Both the prepositions bi / ‫ب‬ and m3 / ‫مع‬ are mainly translated into English as with.
Regarding phrase number 19 'written by Shakespeare', in MSA no preposition is required as verbs in MSA have an exclusive passive form. Arabic dialects, however, do not express the passive in the same way, in the Emirati Dialect it is expressed by the preposition 3n ‫عن‬ which usually means "about" in MSA. When comparing in Emirati Dialect, I am taller than you, for instance, Emirati dialects allows two prepositions; 3n or min; min is the equivalent of from in both Emirati and MSA. That is, in some structures both 3n and min are interchangeable, being min the equivalent of from in most cases. Although more than the majority chose the correct preposition (written by Shakespeare), the ones who were wrong opted for written from Shakespeare, which might have been an influence of the preposition 3n or min in the Emirati Dialect.
Sentence 24 "His house is by the lake" was mostly filled in as "near the lake"; however, the preposition near had been given as an example: 24. His house is ____ the lake. (that is, near the lake). Therefore, we disregarded the answer "near" as correct. Seven participants also filled in the blank with the preposition close: His house is close the lake, but no one filled in with the alternative preposition close to.
The expression in sentence 21 'by my side', which exists in MSA is simplified in the dialect by "wiaai / ‫وياي‬ ", which literally means with me. However, the expression 'by my side' is recurrent in English and over 50% of participants chose the correct answer. Yet, the remaining participants chose the collocation "on my side", which is also correct in English, but it has a different meaning -moral support instead of being physically beside someone.
We have decided to leave out this preposition from the song, so that we can observe if there is a homogenous improvement in both groups throughout the training. Only the collocation by the lake was present in the song of the experimental group. This collocation is expected to obtain better results compared to the remaining 9 collocations.
Regarding the level of education, from the 177 correct answers obtained in the training of the preposition by, 141 were given by participants who hold a university or master's degree while 105 were given by female participants.

Figure 3. Control Group Pretest Prepositions and Mean
As evidenced in Figure 3, the preposition on obtained the lowest performance whereas the preposition by obtained the highest. The mean of the control group for the correct answers was 27,83%.

Figure 4. Experimental Group Pretest and Mean
As we can observe in Figure 4, the preposition on obtained the lowest performance whereas the preposition by obtained the highest. The mean of the control group for the correct answers was 27,16%. If we contract Figure 3 and Figure   The results evidenced in Table 6, do not contemplate the results from the preposition in, as we have decided to disregard it from the study due to the high number of accurate answers. In order to better unterstand these figures, let us see them in Figure 5 below: Figure 5

Posttest 1 grammar (prepositions)
In order to carry out the Posttest 1, participants had to follow exactly the same procedures described in the pretest (see 7.1) Regarding Table 6, we would like to highlight that the first two collocations in the song "on sale" and "on a farm" were the two which obtained most correct answers. These results are in keeping with the working memory capacity [50]. Brain capacity is limited to approximately five to seven pieces of information. Our brain tends to firstly memorize the seven pieces of information on a list or in a text. In this first posttest we can observe a better performance in the experimental group compared with the control group.
From the 275 accurate answers regarding the preposition on, 192 were given by participants who majored from university or have a master's degree. 179 right answers were given by females.  Table 7, the phrase "at Christmas" obtained a slight improvement in both groups compared to the pretest, this improvement was also homogeneous. This can be explained by the fact that this phrase was not present in the song. In other words, both groups had the same type of input, they just read this phrase one on the training sheet (see appendix D). Concerning the phrase "at 234 Oxford street", the experimental group performed slightly better than the control group as this phrase was present in the song. However, this phrase was translated from Arabic into English and as in Arabic there is no preposition for such phrase (I live in Oxford Street, 51), participants translated it literally. The collocation "at Alramsa@email.com had a homogenous progress; both groups had the same input as this phrase is not present in the song.
As we have previously mention, our brain tends to memorize the first seven pieces of information. In a song, apart from the actual beginning, the chorus is also considered a new beginning as it is repeated several times throughout the song. Our chorus "on the weekend in, in the USA, at the weekend in the UK, UK". All participants in the experimental group translated the sentence "I will see you on / at the weekend" correctly.  Table 8 shows us the result obtained regarding the preposition by, which was intentionally left out of the song so that we could compare if there was a homogenous improvement in both the control and the experimental groups. We can observe very similar results in both groups.
The few participants who did not use the collocation "written by Shakespeare", kept using the preposition from instead.  Figure 6 shows that the mean of the control group is of 51% of correct answers. This percentage almost doubled when compared to the control group mean in the pretest (Figure 3), which was 27,83%. We can confirm that training contributes to an improved performance in the discrimination and identification of L2 [20,51,52]      As we can observe in Table 10, the posttest 1 confirmed the proclivities in the pretest: Female participants and the ones who hold a University or master's degree obtained better results. Let us visualize these figures in the graph bellow: Figure 8

Posttest 2 grammar (prepositions)
Posttest 2 was administered after the final training session, session 6. Below there are the results obtained by both groups:  Table 11 shows us the results regarding the preposition 'on'. It can be seen that the experimental group almost mastered this preposition while the control group also improved its performance but not even one collocation with the preposition 'on' was mastered. It can be observed in Table 12 that the collocations at Christmas, at the end of the month, at night, yell at, which were not present in the song obtained the same or nearly the same number of correct answers in both groups. The table shows that the phrase good at present in the song stood out in performance when compared to the control group, whose majority kept using good in.  Table 13 evidences the results regarding the preposition by, which was intentionally left out of the song. We can observe a homogenous improvement in both the control and the experimental groups. We can observe remarkably similar results in both groups, except for the collocation by the lake, which was present in the song used in the training of the experimental group. It can be seen that the experimental group has mastered this collocation.  Figure 9 evidences the shows that the mean of the control group is of 63.66% of correct answers. This percentage more than doubled when compared to the control group mean in the pretest (Figure 3), which was 27,83%. Again, we can confirm that training contributes to an improved performance in the discrimination and identification of L2 [20,52,53].   Figure 11 shows us a more homogenous panorama, while there is a seven-percent difference between the correct answers between male and female participants, there is a five-percent difference between participants who completed secondary school and the ones who pursued higher education. The differences in level of education in the pretest were over 50%.

Descriptive analysis
In order to make a descriptive analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test was applied: To test the hypothesis of whether there are differences between the pretest and posttest2 regarding the control and experiment groups, the first thing we have done is to calculate a variable of the difference between the scores of posttest 2 and the pretest. Then, to see if there are differences between this variable depending on the group, (as the normality of the difference variable was not fulfilled in both groups) we have used the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test where the hypotheses are: H0: There are no differences between the means between the control group and the experimental group.
H1: If there are differences between the means between the control group and the experimental group. As demonstrated in Table 15, a result z = -5.531 was obtained with an associated p-value less than 0.001, which is why the null hypothesis of equality of means was rejected and therefore we can say that the increase in the scores in the experimental group (mean = 16.450; standard deviation (s.d.) = 0.759; median 17), is significantly higher than that found in the control group (mean = 10.750; SD = 1.070; median 11).   Figure 9 illustrates the differences between the means between the control group and the experimental group.

Conclusion
This study has attempted to demonstrate that students' strengths and weaknesses should be considered in the learning process and with a simple ten-minute training the performance can be considerably improved. We would like to emphasize that grammar, more precisely prepositions, was arbitrarily used in this study; nevertheless, educators can and should use any subject topics to assist learners. A short session was favored to an extended one due to the fact that this study was designed to be implemented in the classroom where teachers usually work with a tight schedule.
The ambition of progress led to the non-preservation of linguistic identity in the UAE. It can be witnessed daily situations in which an Emirati citizen is unable to speak their own native language, i.e. Emirati Dialect, in their own country or rather forced to speak a second language, namely English, which some locals often struggle with [53]. Although the country has over 220 years of bonds with England, not all Emiratis master the language. There are many instances of Arabic influence in Emirati English, one of them is the negative transfer of Arabic prepositions in Emirati English.
As we could read in our Theoretical Framework, Musical intelligence has been proved to be an isolated area which can stand out from other areas. The literature is replete with accounts of astonishing autistic young people who amazingly perform music. [8 -12; 33-38]. Moreover, studies have suggested that music may provide benefits for people with Alzheimer's disease as well as other sorts of dementia [39,42,44,45], as well as release anxiety and promote wellbeing. There are also studies regarding musicians' brains which demonstrated to be larger in the left cerebral hemisphere when contrasted with other individuals. [1] Concerning our four research questions, the first inquired whether there were influences of MSA and Emirati Dialect in the acquisition of prepositions in Emirati English. We could evidence that there is an over usage of the preposition "in" in the Emirati English. This happens due to the fact that the preposition fi, usually translated in English as "in", is the most used preposition in Arabic. This negative transfer was encountered in all the studied prepositions in this study, mainly in the pretest, when participants were still not aware of the correct usage of prepositions. The preposition in obtained the best results, 98% of correct answers. That's why we decided to discard this preposition from our training. The preposition "on" was substituted in the pretest by the preposition "in" in nine out of ten expressions: on a farm, on an island, on independence day, on the bus, on this list, on the 1st of December, on TV, on YouTube and on sale. The only expression that was about 50% correct was on the phone. The preposition by, however, has more expressions correctly petrified in Emirati Arabic. Six out of ten expressions (by metro, by mistake, by chance, by Shakespeare, by my side and by myself) obtained more than 50% percent of correct answers. Regarding the preposition at, only the expression at 7 o'clock is petrified correctly in Emirati English, as it obtained 97,5% of correct answers.
Concerning the preposition "from" (min in Arabic), present in Appendix B, three of the four sentences were negatively transferred into English by more than 90%.
Our second research question investigated the learning through music and through the traditional learning (reading and repeating the content). The null hypothesis of equality of means was rejected (see Table 15) and therefore we could confirm that the increase in the scores in the experimental group was significantly higher than that found in the control group. In other words, learning through music was proved to be statistically more efficient than learning through a more conventional way.
The following research question analyzed the educational level and gender, two important social variables related to linguistic behavior [54,55] and it was revealed that the level of education plays a great role in the proficiency of English: in the pretest 78.5% of the correct answers were among the participants who pursued higher education. Our findings are in keeping with Alnamer S.'s and Alnamer M.'s study [56] which revealed that educated Emirati speakers are more in contact with English and use English loanwords more than the uneducated counterpart. Conversely, uneducated Emirati speakers, instead of words in English would prefer to use Persian, Hindi, and Turkish words.
Regarding gender, the female participants performed better than the masculine ones: 59.3% of the correct answers in the pretest belonged to women. Again, our study is in line with Alnamer S. and Alnamer M. [56] who also demonstrate that female speakers of UAE use English more than their male counterparts in light of the fact that women pursue prestige even in the linguistic level. Male speakers of UAE; nevertheless, use more of Persian and Hindi loanwords and are not usually mindful that these were in fact borrowed. We could also observe that the more training both groups received the shorter was the difference in correct answers concerning these two social variables.
The achievement of superior results when learning through music demonstrated in this present study are similar to the ones obtained in our previous study [20], in which the content taught through dance (experimental group) obtained a statistically meaningful difference compared to the control group (participants were trained in a traditional way, by reading and repeating the content). Therefore we propose that learning through the MI, be it kinesthetic, musical or any other intelligence is worthier than just learning in a traditional way as demonstrated in this study in which we applied musical intelligence to boost learning as well as in our previous study in which kinesthetic intelligence was used in the trainings.
This paper presents various limitations as well as proposals to be improved in future studies. The principal restriction respects the quantity of participants. Having groups of twenty members in the trainings may not be sufficient to test for homogeneity. In future research an expanded number of participants would surely invigorate the outcomes and subsequently the capacity to analyze the findings of the current study more precisely.
Our previous study [20] marked a solid beginning for questions regarding MI. This study is a detailed followup study applying musical intelligence. The data collection used in this study tracked participants responses during the preposition task, responses which can be analyzed and coded in order to study participants' performance and specifically, to which extent accuracy improved as the training advanced. Analyzing more participants in this way may shed more light on the findings of the training obtained in the present study.