The addition of the determiner “a” out of context

Abstract

This paper explores a syntactical error which was found among Mexican learners of English belonging to a Technological University: the addition of the determiner “a” out of context. Specifically, before verbs in simple present and present continuous. The tag “out of context” is given due to the lack of the structure within the statements posited by authors such as Master and Larsen-Freeman. Furthermore, it attempts to deal with the interpretation students give to this addition and what is the special meaning they could give to it. The main objective of this paper is to highlight the error, analyze it and understand it, so that in further research, the researcher would be able to find the possible cause of this error. The paper also highlights the importance of the context and provides some examples of articles’ use with regards to Japanese learners.