Redefining the notion of nativeness and age of first exposure: Evidence from Italian as a second and heritage language

Abstract Heritage language speakers’ self-perception as native has been recently shown to be linked to various measures of proficiency, including objective measures of lexical and grammatical knowledge. The relationship between age of first exposure, a crucial factor dividing heritage from L2 speakers in the traditional sense, is less clear. This paper, thus, explores the relationship between a heritage and traditional L2 classroom learner’s perception as native and their age of first exposure with the proficiency and grammatical knowledge that they attain. Findings confirm that native perception is intrinsically linked to outcomes measured as formal proficiency, self-rated proficiency, and morphosyntactic knowledge. However, age of exposure is linked to self-rated proficiency but neither formal proficiency nor morphosyntactic knowledge. The latter finding crucially suggests that high proficiency can be attained, despite a late start. Heritage speakers often share some intrinsic properties linked to literacy, language use, or input, which result in grammatical knowledge that is neither L2 nor L1-like, but properly “heritage”-like.