Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-08-21

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)

Learning and addressing in distant language has become so crucial these days. However, it can create severe communal and realistic obstacles between speaker and listener. In south asians countries general public is non english speaker. As a english speaker I cannot directly talk to individuals generally. I tend to believe that speaking in external language can generate communication and workable trouble for community.

To commence with, conversation in unfamiliar language can make trouble for speaker and listener, people do not directly understand and answer during public talks and dialogues. For example certain people went to China to learn Chinese language from Pakistan because a huge development work regarding construction is going on with the help of Chinese government where Chinese engineers are working and under these engineers the labours is working are Pakistanis, which even don't know the Chinese language so the people who learned Chinese language from China they helped the engineers to communicate with Pakistani labour. These Chinese Engineers cannot talk to public directly, if they try to do that they will be more issues instead of getting work done.

In addition to this a training team came of Russia to train Pakistani graduates in field of Gas and petroleum, if those graduates do not understand the Russian language they cannot get the relevant knowledge. This training will become a nightmare for them. They cannot perform in the production field because they did not get the training due to bearer of language.

In my perspective delivering in non-national language can cause problems for speaker and natives. consequently there will be a huge gap of communication problem. Thus foreign speaker can work and talk with only those who known the relevant language.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the social and practical problems of living in a foreign language environment. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. While you provide examples regarding Chinese engineers in Pakistan and Russian training teams, the explanation of these points is repetitive and lacks depth. The position is clear, but the argument could be strengthened by exploring the 'social' aspect mentioned in the prompt more thoroughly, as the essay focuses almost exclusively on workplace communication. To reach a higher band, ensure that all parts of the prompt are balanced and fully explored with more sophisticated reasoning.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate. For example, 'To commence with' is used in a way that feels slightly unnatural, and the transition between ideas is sometimes abrupt. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the second paragraph where the sentence structure makes it difficult to track who is helping whom. Improving the variety and precision of linking words and ensuring that each paragraph has a clear, singular focus would significantly improve the flow of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision and range required for a higher band. There are several instances of awkward word choices, such as 'addressing in distant language' instead of 'communicating in a foreign language' and 'workable trouble' instead of 'practical difficulties'. You rely on basic vocabulary and struggle with collocations. To improve, focus on learning topic-specific phrases related to language barriers and communication, and try to avoid repeating the same words (like 'language' and 'trouble') throughout the text.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

There is a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but the accuracy is inconsistent. You frequently omit articles (e.g., 'in south asians countries', 'the labours is working'), and there are issues with subject-verb agreement and word order. Some sentences are grammatically confusing, such as 'the people who learned Chinese language from China they helped the engineers'. These errors occur frequently and occasionally force the reader to re-read to understand the intended meaning. Focusing on basic sentence construction and proofreading for articles and verb forms will help improve your score.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.