I came up with a strategy to make the pronunciation of English intuitive and learner-friendly. What's so different and unique about it?
It bridges the L1 and L2. I use Portuguese sounds to show the pronunciation of English words.
It came up to me in class one day, twelve years ago, and it had immediate results. Students used to mispronounce everyday English words on a regular basis. And they were in their third year of English! :-(
I started with common words such as 'I', 'apple', 'tea', 'teacher', 'student'. I wrote the equivalent Portuguese sounds between slashes: /ai/, /aépel/, /tí/, /títchar/ and /stiudant/. Bingo! It worked! They pronounced them correctly every time I pointed randomly to one of the words on the board.
It was magic! How could such a simple solution suddenly correct built-in mistakes?
I created a webpage at once that was updated regularly. And I used the strategy till the end of the school year. The students' pronunciation improved significantly.
This simple, homemade recipe generated even greater enthusiasm and engagement the following school year with my beginner EFLers in the5th grade. It caught on immediately and everyone wanted their recipe accepted for more problematic words, because it would go on the Internet. :-)
Once again I created a webpage and had a notetaker in every class to jot down the words and their pronunciation. I'd take the sheet of paper home every day and update the webpage. It was low tech and high tech working together for the benefit of the students. This webpage was their reference for pronunciation.
Why does this mean so much to me? Because correct pronunciation is a very significant part of making yourself understood and getting your message across.
Years later, with the encouragement of the Radical English teachers group, I started working on an e-dictionary that was self-published at the beginning of September 2014.
I hope it will become known to all Portuguese-speaking teachers and learners of English. We're many millions worldwide.
And I also hope that it may inspire English teachers of other native languages to try out something similar.
You're welcome to download the sample or get the full version Pronunciation Made Easy for Portuguese-speaking learners of English with 3.500 words. Just click the "e-Dictionary" tab above.
And feel free to spread the word whether through mouth or mouse! Your students will be grateful!
Enjoy pronouncing!!! :-)