A Case Study of Error Analysis in Mexican EFL Middle School Students

Abstract

The present study intended to examine written errors made by 9^th-grade students at a representative middle school at Zacatecas, Mexico. As an essential curricular subject, English as a foreign language is the target for this research due to the variety of errors committed by students when they perform a writing task. The analyzed variables were covert errors (interpretation), overt errors (interpretation), correctness deviation, and appropriateness deviation. Participants were selected due to their proficiency level in English and the background on how they reached the expected level. Students’ productions were taken as specific samples; the aim was to highlight errors according to Corder’s classification. Results showed certain mistakes were prevalent, which is helpful for teachers to decide what to tackle when programming classes and overall to be fully aware of students’ processes to develop EFL in a particular context.