Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-08-04

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Living in a country where you have to speak a foreign language can cause serious social problems, as well as practical problems.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In contemporary society, many people learn new language for their career growth. Some people contend many people live in the foreign country and they have to speak language. As result, they experienced social problems and practical problems and interfere in the future goals. Therefore, i partially agree with this statement and the reason, relevant examples will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

To begin with, people who do not know how to speak, they can definitely face obstacles. First and foremost, in the foreign country, people are speaking their native language, thus people cannot interact to local people and also they don not get job and a lot problems related to career opportunity. For instance, many people migrate from India to the UK but they do not know how to speak English, hence they cannot exchange their idea to native people and may face financial security. In addition, poor at language it can cause misunderstanding and do not get opportunity for exploring different cultures.

Conversely, living in a country where people have to speak their language is not necessary some people can overcome by different solutions. Firstly, some people use advanced technology. Nowadays mobile has a wide range of application which use in translation. Consequently, people can overcome by the applications. For instance, translation application such as Google translate. It allows to change directly voice into different languages. Moreover, people can learn gradually language and become friendly.

To sum up, although translation application available, people may get difficulty like in career prospective, misunderstanding, and practical problems. Therefore, i believe that person should learn foreign language because it opens many door for long run and boost career growth.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by acknowledging both the social and practical challenges of living in a foreign country. You clearly state your position in the introduction and maintain it throughout. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the explanation of 'financial security' and 'misunderstanding' is brief and could be further extended with more specific examples or deeper analysis. While you address the counter-argument regarding technology, the connection between the two sides could be more nuanced to fully explore the 'extent' of your agreement. Overall, the response is relevant and covers all parts of the task, but it lacks the depth required for a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow your argument. You use some cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'First and foremost', 'Conversely', and 'To sum up' to signal transitions. However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical or repetitive. Additionally, there are instances where the flow between sentences is slightly disjointed, such as in the second paragraph where the transition from career opportunities to cultural exploration is abrupt. Referencing is generally clear, but the overall progression of ideas could be smoother to achieve a more cohesive flow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing you to communicate your ideas clearly. You use some topic-specific terms like 'migrate', 'native language', and 'career growth'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are instances of imprecise word choice, such as 'poor at language' instead of 'a lack of language proficiency' or 'exchange their idea' instead of 'exchange ideas'. There is also some repetition of basic vocabulary. To improve, try to incorporate more sophisticated collocations and less common lexical items to demonstrate a wider range of expression.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While you attempt complex sentences, they often contain grammatical errors, such as 'people who do not know how to speak, they can definitely face obstacles' (redundant subject) and 'poor at language it can cause' (missing subject/verb agreement). There are frequent errors in articles, prepositions, and verb forms (e.g., 'they don not get job'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to be noticeable. Increasing your control over complex structures and proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement would significantly improve your score.

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

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