Articulation: The totality of motor movements involved in the production of the actual sounds that comprise speech.

• A. Phonetics
• B. Phonology
• C. AOS
• D. Articulation

Answer: (D)

The concept being tested is the motor production of speech sounds—the movements of the speech articulators to produce actual sounds. The term that fits this description is articulation, which covers how the lips, tongue, jaw, velum, and other structures coordinate to shape each phoneme into audible speech.

Phonetics is about the sounds themselves and their physical properties, including how they’re produced (articulatory), transmitted (acoustic), and perceived (perceptual). Phonology deals with the abstract system of sounds in a language—the inventory of phonemes and the rules that govern their use. AOS, or apraxia of speech, is a specific motor speech disorder affecting planning and programming of those movements. So articulation best captures the total motor movements needed to produce the actual speech sounds.