Correct Response: A. Phonemic awareness is a specific type of phonological awareness that involves the ability to distinguish the individual phonemes in a spoken word. Research indicates that phonemic awareness and letter recognition are the two primary indicators of beginning reading success for students learning to read an alphabetic language such as English. B and C are incorrect because knowledge of academic language structures and content-area concepts and skills contributes to reading comprehension at later stages of reading development but these skills are not prerequisite for beginning reading development. D is incorrect because listening comprehension contributes to the development of reading comprehension but is not prerequisite for developing decoding and fluency skills, which are foundational to early reading development. Without effective decoding skills, students cannot develop grade-level reading comprehension, regardless of their competence in listening comprehension.
