This chapter develops an account of citizen sociolinguistic acts, as distinct from systemic social movements or organized social action. Citizen sociolinguistic acts are momentary ruptures that reveal tacit assumptions behind our everyday use of language. As such they may lead to change, but they may not. In any case, these acts of talking about language transform subjects into citizen sociolinguists. Acts, as idiosyncratic and situationally specific, have existential qualities of that remain outside typical top-down social theoretical explanations like Marxism’s theory of capital, or a Foucauldian system of discipline. Instead, acts of citizen sociolinguistics, like those we’ve been discussing throughout this volume – acts of sociolinguistic arrest or wonderment – consist simply of encounters with another person. These acts of citizen sociolinguistics do not, on their own, reconfigure systemic relations, ethics, or spoken language, any more than an act of kindness or an act of violence might. They are not large-scale curricular reforms or policy changes. However, they raise our awareness of our humanity and relatedness, and the role of language in it, in ways that can provoke further talk and have a societal impact.

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.