Which statement best defines the role of phonemic awareness in emergent literacy?

Phonemic awareness is a foundational skill in emergent literacy and refers specifically to the ability to notice and manipulate the individual sounds, or phonemes, in spoken words. This skill is crucial because it enables children to understand that words are made up of smaller units of sound, which is essential for developing reading and spelling abilities.

By focusing on distinguishing sounds in spoken words, students can start to segment and blend sounds, leading to better decoding skills when they encounter written text. This understanding of sound structure is a stepping stone for more advanced literacy skills, as it equips learners with the tools they need to connect phonemes with their corresponding letters, which is a critical part of reading instruction.

In contrast, recognizing letters in print, understanding story structure, and identifying words by their meanings, while important literacy skills, do not directly pertain to the specific auditory and phonological tasks involved in phonemic awareness.