Mapping Australian Culture and Society in the Animated Series Bluey—The Use of Audiovisual Material in Early EFL Learning

Amaya Arigita-García, Lidia Mañoso-Pacheco, José Luis Estrada-Chichón and Roberto Sánchez-Cabrero ()
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Amaya Arigita-García: Department of Philology and its Didactics, Autonomous University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Lidia Mañoso-Pacheco: Department of Philology and its Didactics, Autonomous University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
José Luis Estrada-Chichón: Department of Teaching of Language and Literature, University of Cadiz, 11003 Cádiz, Spain
Roberto Sánchez-Cabrero: Department of Evolutionary Psychology and Education, Autonomous University of Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain

Societies, 2024, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: Bluey stands as the current pinnacle in children’s television series, lauded and adorned with multiple accolades for its educational and social merits. It stands out for its portrayal of childhood social learning within familial settings, offering a realistic depiction of everyday challenges. In addition, Bluey is based on the everyday life of Australian society, clearly reflecting the country’s customs, social values, and natural environments, making it an invaluable resource for enriching the cultural learning of the English language and culture from an Australian point of view, an issue that is rarely addressed in the specialist literature. Thus, this study seeks to identify the cultural and societal facets of Australia depicted in it, with the aim of assessing its pedagogical value in teaching English to non-native learners within the context of primary education. Thirty evaluators analyzed the 52 episodes of the first season of Bluey, endeavoring to identify elements across nine thematic areas. To mitigate variances among evaluators, elements were verified only if agreement was reached by at least three evaluators. In total, evaluators identified 3327 elements representing Australian culture, comprising these categories: (1) Childhood; (2) Devices; (3) Lifestyles; (4) Food; (5) Language; (6) Sports; (7) Animals; (8) Nature; and (9) Places. A total of 1223 elements received verification by the requisite number of evaluators. The resulting catalog of Australia-specific elements per episode serves as a valuable tool in selecting the most instructive episodes for English-language and Australian cultural education for non-natives. This compilation facilitates a nuanced approach to teaching English, rooted in the diverse and culturally rich Australian context, thus breaking away from strictly British and American cultural associations and embracing a broader linguistic and cultural landscape.

Keywords: Australian culture; systematic observation; learning English; Bluey; cartoons (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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