A person who began the process of acquiring the language at a very early age outside of (but perhaps also in) the classroom. ‘Nativeness’ is not the same thing as nationality (because language borders are not consistent with linguistic ones). It also includes elements of expertise (the ability to achieve specific tasks in specific contexts), place (where a person was born/raised), and affiliation (level of comfort in using a language and feelings of belonging to a community of language users).