Which option is NOT a component of phonological awareness?

• A. Decoding
• B. Syllables
• C. Onset-rime
• D. Rhyming

Answer: (A)

Phonological awareness is about hearing and playing with sound patterns in spoken language, not about reading with written symbols. Within this skill, you work with larger sound units like rhymes (words that sound alike at the end), syllables (beats or chunks in a word), and onset-rime (the initial sound or sounds plus the vowel and following sounds that form a unit, as in the “at” in cat and hat). These are classic tasks used to practice noticing and manipulating sound structures without referring to letters.

Decoding, on the other hand, is about turning written letters into sounds to read a word. It relies on knowing how letters map to sounds (phonics) and is a separate skill from recognizing or manipulating sound patterns in spoken language. So decoding is not a component of phonological awareness, even though the two skills support each other in learning to read.