Hi, Joyce: I would rather teach them English directly. Using any kind of phonetics is a waste of time. Besides, the different phonetics constitute a different 'language' themselves for the learners. I also found that the English language is not a easy language to learn because of its irregularities. In order not to cause confusions in the learning process. I found that the Direct-Method is far more effective. By teaching the students pronouncing the syllables at sight, they usually achieve much faster. You only have to remind them the stresses, and encourage them to imitate your voice and/or check the position of the stress from the dictionary when they are alone. Actually, lots of the dictionaries do not use phonemes at all. I, myself, learnt the languages this way.
Alex