A reader gets hints based on sound-symbol correspondences to decode and…

In reading pedagogy, the three-cueing-systems model describes how a reader constructs meaning from a text using three interacting cue types: graphophonic cues (matching written letters/symbols to their corresponding sounds), syntactic cues (using grammar and word order to predict words), and semantic cues (using meaning, context, and prior knowledge). A related but distinct idea, metalinguistic awareness, is a reader's conscious reflection on language as an object of thought — such as noticing its structure or units — rather than a fourth mechanism for decoding sound-symbol relationships.

The reader in the question is using hints based on sound-symbol correspondences to decode and comprehend the text — that is precisely the graphophonic cueing system, since it works by linking written symbols directly to the sounds they represent (a phonics-based decoding strategy).

• Graphic cues relate to the visual/pictorial features of a text — illustrations, print layout, or picture context — not to matching letters with their sounds.

• Metalinguistic cues involve consciously thinking about language itself, such as its structure or units, rather than converting written symbols into sounds.

• Syntactic cues rely on grammar and word order to anticipate an upcoming word, not on matching sounds to written symbols.