What is the primary focus of the decoding process?

The primary focus of the decoding process is understanding how spoken language is represented by letters. Decoding involves translating written words into their spoken equivalents by recognizing the correlations between letters and sounds. This foundational skill is crucial for developing reading proficiency, as it allows learners to sound out words, which is essential for accessing and understanding written language.

By mastering decoding, students can begin to read independently and comprehend text. This ability to break down words into their component sounds (phonemes) and associate them with the correct letters and letter combinations (graphemes) forms the basis for further reading development, including vocabulary growth and fluency.

While understanding the meaning of words, recognizing syllable patterns, and engaging with the text are important aspects of reading comprehension, they build upon the ability to decode. Thus, the crux of decoding lies in learning the systematic relationship between writing and sounds in a language, making option C the accurate choice in this context.