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Conclusion

Why We Must Talk about Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2020

Betsy Rymes
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
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Summary

This chapter concludes the book with a call for language awareness for all: a roundup of approaches to exploring how we talk about language and an explanation for why we must. Any student, from pre-school through graduate school, and any human, of any age, can embark on this type of citizen sociolinguistic inquiry. This chapter calls readers to listen to their students, colleagues, children, and peers: What word, turn-of-phrase, or way of speaking has led to wonderment and sparked conversation? Hoagie? Lightening bug? Creaky voice? Eyebrows on fleek? Chinese? What sorts of citizen sociolinguistic arrests have you (or people you know) experienced? These experiences – good and bad – can be springboards to important citizen sociolinguistic inquiry. Over the years, I’ve developed the ideas in this book as a loose guide to push high-school, college and graduate students, and myself to explore language questions – whether sparked by wonderment, arrest, or something else, and to dwell with multiple possible answers to any of them. I provide examples of my own and encourage readers to build flexible and thoughtful habits with language, as citizen sociolinguists, and to share their discoveries through more acts of citizen sociolinguistics.

Type
Chapter
Information
How We Talk about Language
Exploring Citizen Sociolinguistics
, pp. 185 - 192
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Conclusion
  • Betsy Rymes, University of Pennsylvania
  • Book: How We Talk about Language
  • Online publication: 07 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108770194.009
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Save book to Dropbox

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  • Conclusion
  • Betsy Rymes, University of Pennsylvania
  • Book: How We Talk about Language
  • Online publication: 07 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108770194.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Betsy Rymes, University of Pennsylvania
  • Book: How We Talk about Language
  • Online publication: 07 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108770194.009
Available formats
×