Putting local on the MAP: A model for engaging foreign language students with local cultures

Culture in the teaching and learning of foreign languages tends to be stereotypical and monolithic, marginalizing the diversity of local cultures and practices and resulting in a monocultural and monolingual bias. Expanding on the ACTFL Cultures and Comparisons Standards, the current article presents the MAPS model for Exploring Local Cultures aimed at engaging students with local products, practices, and perspectives through the creation, exchange, and analysis of digital artifacts of local cultures. The article demonstrates how a complex pedagogical model can be constructed from existing research and theory as well as how to implement it: in addition to presenting the model and its underlying literature, the article details its implementation in two classes.