Phonemes are the smallest basic form of a sound and they are sensed in your

mind rather than spoken or heard. Each phoneme has associated with it one or
more sounds, called allophones, which represent the actual sound
corresponding to the phoneme in various environments.
Phonemes are not physical sounds. They are abstract mental representations
of the phonological units of a language, the units used to represent words in our
mental lexicon. The phonological rules of the language apply to phonemes to
determine the pronunciation of words.
A Brazilian learner of English has become accustomed to a certain phonological
environment, where certain sounds are not produced or heard and, even when
they are possible, they do not come together. A teacher must be aware of those
minimal differences in the environment produced by the English Language and
how to articulate them in order to improve and guide students in their journey of
learning a new language.
Distinctive features are the phonetic differences between two phones in order to
contrast meaning. For example, in the minimal pairs cap/cab and rock/rack,
where the different sounds cause a change in meaning.
Phonological rules are related to the phonetic environment, meaning, there are
certain mandates we must follow in pronouncing words. Also, the rules apply to
the same group of sounds, or, a specific pattern feature.
The phonetic representation, derived by applying the phonological rules,
includes all of the linguistically relevant phonetic aspects of the sounds. It does
not include all of the physical properties of the sounds of an utterance, however,
because the physical signal may vary in many ways that have little to do with
the phonological system. The absolute pitch of the sound, the rate of speech, or
its loudness is not linguistically significant. The phonetic transcription is
therefore also an abstraction from the physical signal; it includes the non variant
phonetic aspects of the utterances, those features that remain relatively
constant from speaker to speaker and from one time to another. The rules are
universal:
In Assimilation, the vowel nasalization rule is an assimilation rule, or a
rule that makes neighboring segments more similar by duplicating a phonetic
property.
Vowels are nasalized before a nasal consonant within the same syllable. This
rule specifies the class of sounds affected by the rule of the Vowels. And It
states what phonetic change will occur by applying the rule of changing
phonemic oral vowels to phonetic nasal vowels. And it specifies the context or
phonological environment:
Before a nasal consonant within the same syllable.
The Dissimilation happens when two sounds tend to become less similar due to the
speakers difficulty in using them, and opts for a substitution for another sound rather
than to speak properly. For example, imagine a Brazilian student attempting to
pronounce the th sound. Since this sound does not exist in the Portuguese language,
he/she tends to substitute this sound for d, which does exist in his language.

The Insertion Rule happens when a sound is added in a word because of the way it is
pronounced, it a matter of speed. An example is the word hamster, when it is
pronounced fast, most of us hear as hampster with a p.
The Deletion Rule occurs when we pronounce a word omitting a sound. An example:
when we pronounce police, we omit the vowel sound /o/.
Another rule is the Feature-Changing. This rule is between the assimilation and
dissimilation rule, when we pronounce a word, it appears an aspirated sound just as in:
chip /t p/.
In the rule of the Movements (Metathesis), the letters change places but, it does not
change the meaning when said. For example, some speakers of English they
pronounce the word ask [ks].
The teaching of pronunciation in Brazilian English language can influence how students
will perceive and receive the sounds of language. All this rules mentioned are
extremely important as a support for teachers and consequently for students. We can
teach and accentuate the difference between long and short vowels, that the
differences may seem silly but can actually change a whole meaning of a sentence.
Help students realize the difference between fricatives and affricates and help them
recognize phonological rules that can help them pronounce unfamiliar words. Example:
The difference between tea and chi, ship and sheep.
Phonemes, distinctive features and phonological rules are extremely important for
linguistics because they describe each sound of a language and how to pronounce it.
All the peculiarities and the organization of symbols can help a teacher, of some way
during her or his professional life, to answer any question a student might have when
learning this new language.