The importance of teaching second language learners the pragmatic norms of relevant communities of practice is widely recognised. Familiarisation with these norms is also an important aspect of socialisation for native speakers entering a new community of practice. This study focuses on pragmatic instruction of English as an additional language and native speaker learners preparing to enter undergraduate study. In particular, the instruction focused on one community of practice which undergraduates typically encounter: groups undertaking joint projects. The instruction was explicit, drawing on semiauthentic and naturalistic scripted samples of discourse relevant to the target community of practice. This report considers six cases of the total 15 participants in order to explore changes in their pragmatic competence and ability to participate effectively in the target community of practice. The data are derived from pre- and post group discussions and discourse completion tasks as well as post instruction participant reflections on group negotiations and intercultural communication. Instruction was found to have had a positive impact on the pragmatic competence of these participants as well as raising their awareness of cultural differences as they learned to interact in an intercultural third place. These findings support the value of using relevant naturalistic discourse samples in explicit pragmatic instruction.