The aim of this paper is to consider the methodology used in research on word recognition in a foreign language. The focus is on gating experiments, which are widely used in L1 research. Although the task is highly evaluated, the successive presentation of additional input of the same target word has been criticized. I have considered the possibility of using a gating experiment as a method for investigating the process of L2 spoken word recognition, by considering two types of gating experiments. The result demonstrates that the successive presentation of the same words does not cause unsuitable data collection. Instead, the successive presentation gives us a relatively conservative result. This is largely consistent with a previous study on L1 word recognition and is in the opposite direction to what would be expected from the criticism directed at this method. It therefore seems appropriate to conclude that gating experiments are an effective method for investigating the process of L2 spoken word recognition, along with other experimental paradigms.