Anytime you push off the ground to take a step forward, it's the frictional force on your rear foot that allows you to do so. The contact between your foot and the ground will determine how hard you can push - based on the coefficient of friction and the normal force, there is some upper limit of force which friction can provide. If you try to push off harder, friction can't fully oppose the force of your foot pushing backwards, so your foot will slip.
When you take small steps, you push off lightly, lowering the amount of force exerted through your back foot, as well as the opposing force of friction that pushes back. If you took large steps, your rear foot would exert a large force, and friction might not be able to provide a force that large, which would result in your foot slipping. In this sense, taking small steps decreases the frictional force exerted, keeping it under the limit where slipping would occur.
I'll also note the difference between static and dynamic friction. When your foot starts to slip, it is governed by dynamic friction rather than static friction, which is always less than static friction. 544
In this senes, taking small steps without slipping can provide more friction than you'd get by slipping while taking large steps.
Overall, the question seems very poorly worded to me. Taking smaller or larger steps certainly does not affect the normal force. I'd also interpret "larger friction" and "smaller friction" to refer to the coefficient of friction, which is also unchanged by the step size. If we take it to mean "larger frictional force" or "smaller frictional force", the question is still unclear. Smaller steps will reduce the amount of force supplied by friction, if both step sizes are non-slipping. But if the large step size does slip, smaller steps can result in a larger frictional force, due to the difference between dynamic and static friction. So, the answer will depend on if the large step slips or not - if it does, the small step may provide a larger frictional force; if it does not, the small step provides a smaller frictional force. 544