Finding lost words: The 'savings effect' in the Irish language context.

This study investigates the presence of residual Irish language knowledge in adults who learned Irish as a second language (L2) in school but are no longer active users, applying the savings paradigm to test relearning advantages for previously encountered ("old") versus new Irish nouns. Using a corpus-based word list and a three-phase online testing procedure over two months, results show that participants recalled old Irish nouns significantly better than new ones, indicating a residual lexical knowledge base. Additionally, self-efficacy—individuals' confidence in their language abilities—was found to be a more accurate predictor of performance than a single global self-assessment question, with participants generally underestimating their Irish skills. The study also highlights the use of cognates as a retrieval strategy, suggesting potential avenues for reactivating forgotten language knowledge. These findings have implications for language maintenance and revitalization efforts in contexts where Irish is a compulsory but infrequently used L2.