How do the words we use shape who we are, and what happens when schools decide which forms of speech are considered “proper”? Can we teach language without erasing the people who speak it?

Betsy Rymes is a Professor of Educational Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Communicating Beyond Language and Citizen Sociolinguistics. Her work explores how language, culture, and power intersect in everyday life, revealing how schools, digital spaces, and institutions privilege certain forms of speech over others. Through her research, writing, and teaching, she invites students and educators to see language not as a set of rules to master but as a living, social practice that reflects identity and community.

In this episode, Betsy and I explore what it means to study language as something alive and deeply human. We talk about names, kinship terms, and how even a simple greeting can reveal intimacy, hierarchy, and belonging. Betsy explains how “standard” language ideologies like the idea that one version of English is superior have been built into our education systems, shaping how students are sorted, judged, and valued.

We also discuss what it would look like to teach English as an act of inquiry rather than correction. Betsy shares how her work in sociolinguistics helps teachers and students become more critically aware of how language operates around them how words carry history, emotion, and power. Together, we imagine classrooms where curiosity replaces compliance and where every student’s voice becomes part of a larger conversation about who we are and how we speak.