SUMMARY
This study investigates the effect of flipped classroom instruction on developing Emirati EFL learners’ pragmatic competence. It compares flipped classroom instruction with the conventional method of developing learners’ request speech acts. To this end, the participants were randomly divided into two groups: experimental and control. A Discourse Completion Task (DCT) was conducted as pre- and post-test to determine whether flipped classroom instruction is more effective than the conventional method in providing learners with pragmatic knowledge needed to produce request speech acts successfully. Data were analysed using a paired sample t-test. The results showed that flipped classroom instruction was more effective than the other method in raising the level of pragmatic competence among the participants. The study results also revealed that the participants’ performance on request speech acts in the treatment group remarkably improved in the post-test. This is because they had a more flexible and accessible e-learning environment, which in turn, enhanced their pragmatic competence after the treatment. The study concludes with recommendations for further research. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.10.6