<b>Third places and the interactive construction of interculturality in the English as foreign/additional language classroom

Abstract

Based on the assumption that the construction of interculturality in third places is essential for foreign/additional language teaching and learning, this paper aims at discussing how these third places are interactively constructed in real classrooms. In order to achieve that objective, I will first review some theoretical studies that have dealt with the construction of third places and interculturality in the classroom. Then, the methodological procedures will be explained. After that, I will contextualize, analyze and compare some real classroom episodes taken from different studies pointing out their different interactional features. The findings show that the episodes investigated present two types, having either an ‘essentialist cultural orientation’ or an ‘intercultural orientation’. In the former orientation, the episodes cannot be considered third places as culture is an object constructed as an entity in its own right (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013). On the other hand, in the latter orientation, third places seem to be constructed as teachers and learners are seemingly interactively engaged in the practice of meaning-making by confronting different points of view.