Overall, the findings showed that teaching children phonics in context was effective and that teaching phonemic awareness seems to significantly improve students’ reading. Although teaching phonics with a whole language approach does not represent a complete reading program, it provided students with essential foundational knowledge of the English phonemic system. The findings of this research provide evidence that raising phonemic awareness is a valuable and essential part of a successful classroom reading program. Data collected during the implementation of the action plan revealed that teaching phonics should be a key component of the UAE elementary schools’English curriculum.