Oregon Educator Licensure Assessments (ORELA) Practice Exam

What does phonics teach beginners?

1. The importance of vocabulary development

2. How to associate letters with their sound values

3. How to find the main idea of a text

4. The benefits of reading daily

The correct answer is: How to associate letters with their sound values

Phonics is a foundational method of teaching that focuses on the relationship between letters and their corresponding sounds. By learning phonics, beginners are equipped to understand how letters combine to form sounds, which is essential for developing reading skills. This systematic approach to linking sounds with letters enables students to decode new words, enhancing their ability to read fluently and confidently. While vocabulary development, finding the main idea of a text, and reading daily are all important components of literacy, they do not directly relate to the core focus of phonics. Instead, phonics emphasizes the building blocks of reading—the sound-letter associations—enabling beginners to make sense of written language. Understanding these sound values is critical for developing literacy skills in early education.