Presentation

Understanding the Brazilian Way of Speaking English

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Abstract

To better understand the aspects that characterize Brazilians’ pronunciation of English, we have formed a study group, formed by researchers, professors, and under-graduate students, to study phonetics, phonology and pronunciation teaching, with a theoretical focus on usage-based phonology (Bybee, 2001, 2010) and exemplar models (Pierrehumbert, 2000, 2001, 2003). The group has had an interesting experience using Praat (Boersma & Weenink), a software for acoustic analysis of speech data. The objective of this article is to demonstrate the basis for the formation of the group and to show how the participants have been using their own speech data, recorded in our laboratory, to understand the acquisition of English phonology by Brazilians. As a result of the experience, group members have improved their own pronunciation, developed educational activities to use in teaching pronunciation, and carried out their own research projects.

How to Cite:

de Castro Gomes, M. L., (2012) “Understanding the Brazilian Way of Speaking English”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 4(1).