Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-03
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
In some educational systems, children are required to study one or more foreign languages. In others, foreign language study is not a requirement. What are the potential benefits of foreign language study?
Do you think foreign language study is an important part of education?
Give reasons for your answer, and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 4.5)
Numerous positive effects of learning a foreign language that change students' lives, both personally and professionally. The biggest benefit is gaining access to education and employment opportunities because international companies need these people nowadays. They speak one or more languages. New language learners have sharp minds or sharp memories and increase their thinking and understanding. This technique helps students understand various cultures and traditions and also helps them understand people more easily and more closely. This technique expands their thinking. Studying a foreign language is an important part of the education system. Therefore, new generations will be ready to any new wars.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 4.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 4.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0
The response addresses the task only minimally and fails to reach the required minimum word count of 250 words, stopping short at just 102 words. While the writer manages to briefly touch upon some potential benefits of foreign language study, such as employment opportunities and cognitive development, and briefly gives an opinion on its importance, the ideas remain severely limited and under-developed. There is a lack of sufficient detail and relevant examples from personal knowledge or experience, which prevents the essay from fully exploring the prompt. To improve, the writer must ensure the word count requirement is met and fully develop each main point with explanations and specific examples.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0
The response demonstrates some organisation, but information and ideas are not arranged coherently into a well-structured essay. There is an absence of proper paragraphing, as the entire text is presented as a single block of thoughts. Furthermore, the overall progression of ideas is unclear, and the connection between sentences feels disjointed due to inadequate or repetitive use of cohesive devices, such as the repeated phrase 'This technique'. To move up, the writer needs to group ideas into logical paragraphs with clear topic sentences and use a wider and more accurate range of cohesive links to guide the reader smoothly through the argument.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is limited and minimally adequate for conveying basic ideas. The writer attempts some less common phrases like 'employment opportunities' and 'cultural understanding', but there are noticeable errors in word choice and expression, such as 'ready to any new wars' instead of preparing for conflicts. Spelling is generally acceptable, but the overall lexical range restricts the precision of the argument. To achieve a higher band, the writer should incorporate a wider variety of less common lexical items and ensure greater accuracy in collocations and phrasal patterns.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The grammatical structures used are rather limited, consisting primarily of simple sentences and a few basic attempts at modification. There are frequent errors in grammar and sentence patterns, such as the incomplete opening sentence fragment ('Numerous positive effects... that change students' lives') which lacks a main verb. Other issues include preposition usage and structural awkwardness. These errors frequently cause difficulty or confusion for the reader. To improve, the writer needs to demonstrate a greater variety of complex sentence forms and maintain better control over basic grammatical rules and sentence boundaries.
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