FTCE Professional Education Practice Exam

Blending, as it relates to phonemic awareness, is important for developing what skill in students?

1. Word recognition

2. Spelling proficiency

3. Phonemic fluency

4. Vocabulary expansion

The correct answer is: Phonemic fluency

Blending is a crucial skill in phonemic awareness that involves the ability to combine individual sounds (phonemes) to form words. This process is foundational for students as they learn to decode and read. When students can successfully blend sounds together, they can recognize words more easily, which supports their overall reading fluency. By developing blending skills, students improve their phonemic fluency, enabling them to articulate and recognize sounds more quickly and efficiently. This fluidity is essential for reading proficiency, as it allows for quicker decoding of unfamiliar words and contributes to overall reading comprehension. Thus, recognizing the importance of blending in phonemic awareness is key to fostering students' phonemic fluency, which is directly related to their ability to understand and process written language effectively.