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What is the action of breaking down a word into its smallest sounds known as?

  1. Blending

  2. Segmenting

  3. Phonetic mapping

  4. Visual clustering

The correct answer is: Segmenting

The action of breaking down a word into its smallest sounds is known as segmenting. This process involves identifying and isolating each distinct phoneme within a word, which is crucial for developing phonemic awareness. Segmenting is an essential skill in early reading development as it helps students understand how sounds form words. By mastering this skill, learners can enhance their ability to decode words, improve spelling, and ultimately strengthen their reading skills. While blending refers to the process of combining individual sounds to form a word, segmenting serves the opposite purpose, focusing on deconstructing the word into its constituent sounds. Phonetic mapping and visual clustering are related concepts, but they do not specifically refer to the breaking down of a word into sounds. Thus, segmenting is the most accurate term for the action described in the question.