What is the primary goal of phonemic awareness in reading instruction?

The primary goal of phonemic awareness in reading instruction is to develop the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words. This foundational skill is crucial for young readers as it involves recognizing that words are made up of individual sounds, or phonemes. By being able to distinguish and manipulate these sounds, students can improve their decoding skills when learning to read.

Phonemic awareness includes skills like blending sounds to form words, segmenting words into their individual sounds, and manipulating sounds to create new words. This ability is a building block for later literacy skills, such as spelling and reading fluency, making it an essential focus in early reading instruction. The other options, while important in their own right, do not specifically address the core function of phonemic awareness, which is centered around sound manipulation.