Which action demonstrates phonemic awareness in a student?

Phonemic awareness involves the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. The action that best demonstrates phonemic awareness is a student identifying the sound /t/ at the end of the word "hat." This task requires the student to focus on the last sound in the word independently of its spelling or meaning, showing that they can isolate and recognize individual phonemes.

The other options involve different aspects of phonological awareness or literacy skills. Recognizing that "hang" is different from "sing," "ring," and "fling" pertains more to understanding word structure and vowel sounds rather than identifying individual phonemes. Matching letters to sounds shows a connection between phonics and letters but does not specifically test phonemic awareness in isolation. Determining the number of syllables in "magazine" relates to syllable awareness, which is a broader aspect of phonological awareness rather than phonemic awareness itself.