After mastering letter-sound correspondences, what is the likely next step in reading instruction?

After mastering letter-sound correspondences, what is the likely next step in reading instruction?

• A. Sight Word Memorization
• B. Phoneme Blending
• C. Print Awareness
• D. Word Awareness

Answer: (B)

Blending phonemes is the natural next step after learning letter-to-sound mappings. Once students hear the individual sounds, they blend them together to pronounce the whole word, turning sound knowledge into decoding ability. For example, knowing the sounds /k/ /æ/ /t/ allows them to blend them to read “cat,” even if they haven’t memorized that whole word yet. This skill is foundational for reading unfamiliar words and for moving into decodable texts that reinforce sounding out words. Memorizing sight words focuses on recognizing whole words by memory rather than decoding, so it doesn’t advance the blending skill. Print awareness and word awareness are foundational, more about noticing print features and recognizing words as units, usually established earlier in development.

Blending phonemes is the natural next step after learning letter-to-sound mappings. Once students hear the individual sounds, they blend them together to pronounce the whole word, turning sound knowledge into decoding ability. For example, knowing the sounds /k/ /æ/ /t/ allows them to blend them to read “cat,” even if they haven’t memorized that whole word yet. This skill is foundational for reading unfamiliar words and for moving into decodable texts that reinforce sounding out words.

Memorizing sight words focuses on recognizing whole words by memory rather than decoding, so it doesn’t advance the blending skill. Print awareness and word awareness are foundational, more about noticing print features and recognizing words as units, usually established earlier in development.