Rymes-Betsy-Stuart Goldenberg
Photo credit: Stuart Goldenberg

I am Betsy Rymes, Professor of Educational Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, where I teach about language and society and how they relate to educational projects, including schools and classrooms. My hopes and dreams for this blog:  That it becomes a place for sharing everyday encounters with language and engaging in dialog about different ways of speaking and attitudes about them–that is, a place for Citizen Sociolinguistics.

8 thoughts on “About this Blogger”

  1. Hi Miss Rymes. I’m Ardiansyah from Indonesia. Can I post my article about “Linguistics of Football” here? thank you. Greetings from Jakarta!

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  2. I’m delighted to find your website on “citizen sociolinguistics”. I am interested particularly in vocabulary as a vehicle for creating language/word awareness. Looking forward to reading your blog posts and perhaps contributing.

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  3. Dear Dr. Rymes,

    I am really intrigued by your website and would be honored if I can interview you for my blog or my school newspaper. I enjoyed reading your perspective on AI, as well as your thoughts on the language line, high school, language awareness etc.

    Kind regards,

    Ridyansh

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  4. Hello Professor Rymes,

    I was wondering if you know of a site where I can ask a question that relates to a word used in urban language (or maybe even ask you)?

    If someone describes a picture as “Worthington”, is that negative or positive?

    I did look up Worthington in the online urban dictionary, but that just left me more confused than before!

    Thannks in advance,

    Douglas Brain – djbrain1965@gmail.com

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  5. Dear Professor Rymes,

    I am from Bangladesh. I am a teacher of English at a college (classes 11 and 12). I am writing to share my experience of teaching English in southern part (Rangpur) of Bangladesh. People here learn English compulsorily for 12 years (from grade 1 through 12) but end up with a very limited capacity to use the language effectively (apart from few exceptions). The main reason I believe is that people don’t feel motivated to learn the language effectively because people can earn, live, socialize or do other staffs without knowing a proper English. They only get into trouble when they intend to go abroad for education or job or want to apply for a high profile job.

    Moreover, the language learning process is also, I would say, flawed. The text books should have more stories, rhymes or poems and exercises but due to a lack of variety and interesting items, students don’t find interest in them. Besides, a blind competition to obtain higher marks or grades makes students and their parents run after memorization of answers (mostly without understanding).

    However, the picture is not entirely bleak because there are people who realize the imminent danger of this practice. But still there is a lot of scope of research on the language learning and teaching strategy, social mindset and on how to increase the scope of effective use of English.

    Thanking you,

    Zia ul Haque

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