In the British context, the Cambridge Dictionary, defines the faux pas as “words or behaviour that are a social mistake or not polite”. The online dictionary also presents a second definition for the American context, namely “a remark or action in a social situation that is a mistake and causes embarrassment or offense.” It is interesting to note that with one culture, the emphasis is on social behaviour and a lack of politeness, whereas the other evokes a degree of embarrassment (or offensiveness). Both definitions consider the words (remarks), behaviour (actions) and the connotation of mistake for this loan word of French origin. In defining the faux pas, one detects the underlying complexity of this notion not only in terms of intercultural and cross-cultural perceptions, but also in terms of contexts. Within the framework of children’s social understanding and developmental psychology research, Banerjee, et al. (2011) characterize the faux pas as “a social blunder involving unintentional insult”. To avoid such insults, blunders, impoliteness, or varying degrees of embarrassment, it is evident that reflections on and the teaching of the faux pas could benefit tertiary-level communication students of English as a foreign language (EFL). This theory-into-practice paper presents the theoretical foundations for a socially and ethically responsible didactic approach to teaching intercultural awareness and communication for non-specialists of English in a second year undergraduate communication class. In an inverted classroom setting, the students are invited to research, prepare and present a cultural faux pas. Accentuated by ethnographic research methods involving observation, informal interviews, as well as the analysis of a corpus of more than 100 written productions, the underlying objective of this methodology is to promote metacognitive skills, intercultural awareness and the acceptance of diversity (otherness), whist valorising various forms of capital (i.e., social, linguistic, or cultural). Data analysis has shown that the method is validated not only in terms of assessment, but also in relation to the valorisation of transnationalism, foreign cultures, languages, and diversity.