One of the purposes of my research project is to help participants understand the discursive nature of culture. To do this, I proposed a CA-based Blended Pedagogy in the project and designed a short course on intercultural interaction for a virtual exchange activity with participants mainly from Hong Kong and UK universities. In this talk, I will share my temporary findings regarding how participants’ understanding of culture changed, maintained and/or fluctuated along the continuum of the essentialist and non-essentialist perspectives. This will hopefully provide more insights into the developmental journey of learners’ cultural understanding. Is it an idealized one with linear progression from essentialist cultural understanding to a non-essentialist one? Or there exists other possible developmental patterns?