For those who did not learn English in early childhood in the United States, England or Ireland (India? South Africa? various othere countries in Africa, the Carribeans and elsewhere?) so that they cannot remember NOT knowing English.

• When did you first become aware that there was such a thing in the world as "English"?
  • (this can be taken as a question about cognition or knowledge)
• When did you become aware that you could not escape English?
  • (this can be taken about knowledge about social constraints from parents, teachers, employers, etc.)
• In what kind of setting (community, polity) did you become aware that you could not escape English
  • (this can be taken as the start of an investigation about social structuring and "systemic" matters)
• What were some of the practices that led you to your current fluency in English?
  • (this can be taken as the start of an investigation about the actual (communities or polities) in which you were caught or were accepted into (if you applied to enter).
• To whom might you now be a "full" member of a polity of practice welcoming and moving new "peripheral participants" (children, students, co-workers)?

(used in my class on anthropology and education)