The influence of the contexts (Italian as a second language studied in Italy and Italian as a foreign language studied abroad) in language acquisition has been examined by means of their comparison. The first part included a study of the theories regarding the error analysis and its application, the different types and possible error sources and some differences between Italian as a second and as a foreign language. Based on the studied theories, a sociolinguistic biography and two exercises (a ‘fill in the gaps’ exercise and a written production) were developed and administered to several students in London, Padova, Venezia and Rovigo. The students’ level was between A1 and A2 (CEFR). The data analysis was carried out following five steps: collection of data, identification, classification, explanation and evaluation. For each level, the most frequent errors have been highlighted and no relevant differences were noticed between the two levels. Starting from the errors, some activities were created in order to overcome them.