Ohio Assessments for Educators (OAE) Foundations of Reading Practice Exam

What is a phoneme?

1. The largest grammatical unit in a sentence

2. The smallest unit of sound within our language system

3. A type of morpheme that changes meaning

4. A letter combination that represents a syllable

The correct answer is: The smallest unit of sound within our language system

A phoneme is defined as the smallest unit of sound within our language system. These individual sounds serve as the building blocks for words and can distinguish meaning between words. For instance, in the words "bat" and "pat," the phonemes /b/ and /p/ create different meanings despite the rest of the sounds being the same. Understanding phonemes is essential for phonics and phonemic awareness, critical components in reading development. Recognizing and manipulating phonemes is foundational for decoding words while reading and for spelling them correctly. The other options relate to different linguistic concepts. For example, the largest grammatical unit in a sentence is a phrase or sentence itself, rather than a sound unit. Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning, not sound; they can be whole words or parts of words, such as prefixes or suffixes. Lastly, a letter combination that represents a syllable refers to a different aspect of language structure, specifically concerning how sounds are organized into syllables, which is distinct from the concept of phonemes.