Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-16

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The pie charts below show responses by teachers of foreign languages in Britain to a survey concerning why their students are learning a foreign language. The first chart shows the main reason for learning a foreign language. The second chart shows how many teachers felt that there has been a recent change in the reason.

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

% of teachers reporting the following as most common reason for learning:

Student answer (Band 6.0)

The two pie charts illustrate the main reasons why students in Britain learn a foreign language, according to teachers, and the proportion of teachers who reported a recent change in these motivations.

Overall, employment was the most commonly reported reason for learning a foreign language, while family and relationships accounted for the smallest proportion. In terms of recent changes, career-related motivation showed the largest increase, whereas only a small minority of teachers reported no significant change.

According to the first chart, employment was the leading reason, accounting for 35% of responses. Travel was the second most common motivation, at 25%, followed by education, which represented one fifth of the total. Personal interest was mentioned by 12% of teachers, while family or relationships was the least common reason, at just 8%.

The second chart shows that 40% of teachers had noticed a recent increase in career-related motivation. Travel was the next most frequently reported change, at 25%, while 20% observed a rise in education-related reasons. By contrast, only 15% of teachers felt that there had been no significant change in why their students were learning a foreign language.

Overall, the figures suggest that practical purposes, particularly employment and travel, were considerably more important than personal or family-related reasons.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The student has attempted to describe the two pie charts regarding reasons for learning a foreign language and recent changes. However, there are significant inaccuracies in the data reported. For instance, the student states that employment accounted for 35% in the first chart and 40% in the second chart, whereas the actual figures from the prompt are 26% and 19% respectively. Similarly, travel is reported as 25% while the chart indicates 33%. While the response provides a general overview and covers the main trends, the severe misrepresentation of the statistical data prevents it from achieving a higher band score under Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The report demonstrates a clear overall structure with a logical progression of ideas. The essay is divided into appropriate paragraphs, starting with a clear introduction and overall summary, followed by body paragraphs detailing the charts, and concluding with a final summary statement. Cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'According to the first chart', and 'By contrast' are used effectively to guide the reader through the text, although referencing and logical flow are occasionally undermined by the inaccurate data being linked.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student uses a sufficient range of vocabulary appropriate for an Academic Task 1 report, successfully employing terms such as 'proportion', 'accounted for', 'motivation', and 'career-related'. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary like 'predominantly' and 'significantly'. However, due to lexical inaccuracies regarding the data itself and minor collocations, the vocabulary remains somewhat limited in precision when matching the exact visual input.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The response exhibits a good mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'The two pie charts illustrate...' and 'The second chart shows that 40% of teachers had noticed...'. Grammatical control is generally quite strong with many error-free sentences, and punctuation is used accurately throughout. Errors are rare and do not impede communication, demonstrating solid control over sentence formation.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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