Which of the following describes "phonics"?

Phonics is fundamentally defined as the system of relationships between letters and sounds, which is crucial for teaching reading and writing. This approach enables learners to understand how different sounds correspond to written letters or groups of letters, thereby facilitating their ability to decode words.

By focusing on these relationships, phonics instruction helps young children make connections between the spoken language and its written form. This foundational skill is essential for early literacy development, as it equips students with the tools to sound out unfamiliar words and become more proficient readers.

The other options, while relevant to literacy, do not accurately capture the essence of phonics. They pertain to different facets of language arts, such as assessment methods, literary genres, and reading comprehension strategies, which do not explicitly address the critical relationship between letters and sounds that phonics encapsulates.