Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-30

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The charts below show the number of French adults whose parents spoke a French regional language to them when they were children and the number who speak a French regional language to their own children.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information below.

Number of adults (in thousands) whose parents spoke a regional language to them in childhood

Student answer (Band 6.0)

The provide charts compare the number of french adults whose parents spoke a regional language to them during childhood with the number of adults who currently pass on these languages to their own offspring, categorized by habitual and occasional usage.

Overall, there is a clear downward trend across almost all regional languages across the generations. Futhermore, in both childhood and adulthood, these languages are far more likely to be spoken occasionally rather than habitually, with occitan and alsatian remaining the most widely utilized.

Looking at the numbers from childhood, occitan was the most prominent regional language, spoken occasionally to nearly 600,00 children and habitually to around 200,00. Alsatian followed closely as the second most common tongue, with around 550,000 occasional and just over 200,000 habitual speakers. In contrast, breton and creole were considerably less frequent, with creole being the least spoken at well under 100,000 speakers in both categories.

In the subsequent generation, the transmission of these languages declined significantly. The number of adults who speak occitan occasionally dropped sharply to around 300,000, while habitual speakers fell drastically to negligible levels. A similar halving occured for alsatiam. conversely, creole broke the trend by remaining relatively stable, showing a very slioght increases in occasional transmission to the next generations.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student provides a good overview of the charts, noting the overall downward trend and the dominance of Occitan and Alsatian. The main features are selected and highlighted effectively, such as the comparison between habitual and occasional usage and the generational changes. However, there are a few inaccuracies in data interpretation compared to the source text (e.g., mixing up the numbers for occasional and habitual speakers in certain instances, or misreading decimal place conventions in the chart labels). Despite minor data misreadings, the response successfully addresses all parts of the task with relevant and extended ideas. This performance aligns well with a Band 6.5 or 7.0 for Task Achievement, and a solid 6.5 is awarded.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response is logically organized with a clear overall progression. It begins with a well-formulated introduction, followed by an overview paragraph, and then body paragraphs detailing the childhood data and the subsequent generation. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well to guide the reader through comparisons (e.g., 'In contrast', 'In the subsequent generation', 'conversely'). Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different stages and aspects of the data. While referencing is generally clear, some minor mechanical errors in cohesion occur, keeping the score at a solid Band 7.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate to good range of vocabulary suitable for an Academic Task 1 response, using terms such as 'categorized', 'prominent', 'transmission', and 'negligible'. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, though accompanied by minor word-form or spelling errors ('alsatiam' instead of 'Alsatian', 'slioght increases', 'occure'). Despite these occasional slips, the lexical range is sufficient to convey the information with acceptable precision and flexibility, meriting a Band 6.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, incorporating subordinate clauses and participial phrases effectively (e.g., 'categorized by habitual and occasional usage', 'The number of adults who speak occitan occasionally dropped sharply'). There are several grammatical and mechanical errors, including capitalization issues ('french', 'occitan'), punctuation slips, and minor typographical errors. However, these errors do not impede communication, and the majority of simple sentences are error-free, supporting a Band 6.0 score.

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