FTCE Reading K-12 Practice Exam

What is the primary focus of phonics instruction?

1. Improving fluency through reading comprehension

2. Teaching students to connect sounds with letters

3. Developing speaking skills in a social context

4. Encouraging creative writing prompts

The correct answer is: Teaching students to connect sounds with letters

The primary focus of phonics instruction is to teach students to connect sounds with letters. Phonics is a method of teaching reading and writing by developing learners' awareness of the relationships between phonemes (the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and spelling patterns that represent those sounds). This connection is crucial for decoding words, which is the ability to sound out words in order to read them. Understanding how sounds correspond to letters helps students develop their reading skills, as they learn to break down words into their individual sounds and then blend those sounds together to form words. This foundational skill supports overall literacy development, aiding in both reading fluency and comprehension as students advance. While improving fluency through reading comprehension, developing speaking skills, and encouraging creative writing are all important aspects of literacy, they are not the primary goal of phonics instruction. Instead, phonics serves as the building block that enables further skills in literacy development.