Specifically, HS are said to diverge in their L1 production (e.g., Fenyvesi, 2005), comprehension (e.g., Polinsky, 2006), lexical diversity (e.g., Hulsen, 2000), and grammatical intuition (e.g., Montrul and Bowles, 2009). Research on heritage speakers (HS) over the past 20 years has claimed that these childhood bilinguals whose home language is a societal minority language, differ qualitatively in the competence of their first-acquired language 1 (henceforth L1) when compared to other bilinguals ( Benmamoun et al., 2013a Montrul, 2016b Polinsky, 2018). We conclude that individual variation, as measured by use, is a critical factor tha must be taken into account in the description of the language competencies and processing of heritage and late bilinguals alike. In particular, current use predicts sensitivity to L1 ungrammaticality across both HS and LB populations.

Results: Results show that group-based models generally yield conflicting results while models collapsing groups and having usage as a predictor yield consistent ones. Data were analyzed using generalized additive mixed effects models (GAMMs) and two models were created and compared to one another: one with group (LB/HS) and the other with groups collapsed and current and historical use of Spanish as continuous variables. Methodology: This study uses pupillometry, a method that has only recently been used in psycholinguistic studies of bilingualism, to investigate pupillary responses to three syntactic island constructions in two groups of Spanish/English bilinguals: heritage speakers and late bilinguals. In addition, few studies have used implicit measures, e.g., psychophysiological methods (ERPs Eye-tracking), that can circumvent confounding variables such as resorting to conscious metalinguistic knowledge. While several explanations have been proposed for such differences (e.g., incomplete acquisition, attrition, differential processing mechanisms), few have taken into consideration the individual variation that must occur, due to the fluctuation of factors such as exposure and use that characterize all bilinguals. Introduction: Traditional studies of the population called “heritage speakers” (HS) have treated this group as distinct from other bilingual populations, e.g., simultaneous or late bilinguals (LB), focusing on group differences in the competencies of the first-acquired language or “heritage language”. 3Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States.2Second Language Acquisition Laboratory, Linguistics Program, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY, United States.

1Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders, Queens College, New York, NY, United States.Johns 3 Pamela Franciotti 2 Daniela Castillo 2 Ilaria Porru 2 Cass Lowry 2

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