Reactivating a dormant vocabulary

Abstract

This paper describes an attempt to elicit examples of spontaneous vocabulary reactivation as a result of a short period of intensive exposure to an L2 environment. The data collected suggests that extensive reactivation may take place under these conditions, but it is largely driven by words that were encountered in the environment. Some spontaneous reactivation occurs as well, but this seems to be on a much smaller scale than is implied in accounts of the ‘Boulogne Ferry Effect’. The paper argues that detailed investigations using co-operative single subjects can sometimes allow us to research questions which are not amenable to experiments using large subject groups.