Abstract: The purpose of the study is to determine the role and degree of use of the cognitive approach in the study of directive speech acts. The article provides an overview of modern theoretical research in the field of speech acts, and also substantiates the use of a cognitive approach in the study of directive speech acts. The relevance of this study lies in the fact that the widespread use of the cognitive approach for the analysis of speech acts in different language groups has not been sufficiently studied, which leads to communication failures between communication participants. The subject of this article is the functioning of the cognitive approach in the study of directive speech acts. The object is the study of directive speech acts on the example of English and Arabic academic discourses using a cognitive approach. Descriptive, contextual, comparative-historical methods are used as the main research methods. The novelty of our research lies in the fact that the widespread use of the cognitive approach for the analysis of speech acts in different language groups has not been sufficiently studied, which leads to communication failures between communication participants. The study of ways to prevent these communication failures is an important component in building global interaction between communication participants both in linguistics and in the world as a whole. Therefore, the relevance of the study of the use of the cognitive approach lies in the need of society to build adequate interaction at various levels. As a result of the conducted research, it is proved that the use of a cognitive approach in the analysis of directive speech acts helps to reduce the number of communicative failures of representatives of the English-speaking and Arabic-speaking academic discourses. The research materials can be used in universities of the humanities in the study of special courses in comparative linguistics and intercultural communication, as well as the data obtained can be applied in the process of educational and methodological activities in the creation of specialized textbooks.