Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-08-26

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)

An individual might face social and practical problems living in a country where he/she has to communicate in foreign language. I agree with the statement; communicating in foreign language can cause both social and practical issues.

Person moving to a country with different language can face social problems. Consider an Indian male moving to Germany for a job. German not his being mother tongue can cause problems for him while communicating with his colleagues. Other employees in the office might alienate him because they are not comfortable in talking with someone who is not able to convey thoughts in their language. The individual who moved to foreign nation for the economic benefits might face such social issues in daily life.

Furthermore, communicating in foreign language has practical drawbacks too. Continuing the above example the same guy might face issues in job because of less proficiency in speaking German. In companies employees often gives presentations to their team or clients of the company, if the foreign employee is not able to explain the company's product to the client because he is not fluent in German might convert in loss for company which might lead to demotion or termination of this Indian employee.

In conclusion, moving to a foreign nation where you have to communicate in a foreign language might cause serious problems in both social and practical ways. One might feel alienated because of the issue or one might have constant fear of loosing job because of the less fluency in the foreign language.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have addressed the prompt by discussing both social and practical problems associated with living in a country where a foreign language is spoken. Your position is clear from the introduction and maintained throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. While you provide a relevant example of an Indian professional in Germany, the analysis remains quite narrow. To reach a higher band, you should expand on the 'social' aspect beyond just alienation, perhaps discussing the difficulty of forming deep friendships or navigating cultural nuances, and provide more depth to the 'practical' consequences beyond just job loss. The ideas are relevant but could be more fully extended.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Furthermore' and 'In conclusion' to signal the progression of your argument. However, the flow between sentences is occasionally mechanical, and some transitions feel repetitive. For instance, the link between the introduction and the first body paragraph could be smoother. Additionally, the referencing is sometimes slightly unclear, such as 'the same guy' in the second body paragraph, which is a bit informal for an academic essay. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring smoother transitions would enhance the overall coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing you to convey your meaning clearly. You use some topic-specific terms like 'proficiency', 'alienate', and 'termination'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are instances of awkward phrasing or imprecise word choices, such as 'German not his being mother tongue' and 'might convert in loss for company'. These errors do not impede communication, but they demonstrate a lack of flexibility in using more sophisticated collocations or idiomatic expressions. To improve, focus on learning natural word pairings and avoiding direct translations from your native language.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While you attempt complex sentences, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles (e.g., 'moving to a country with different language'), subject-verb agreement, and preposition usage. For example, 'employees often gives presentations' should be 'give', and 'loosing' is a spelling error for 'losing'. These errors are noticeable but do not prevent the reader from understanding your main points. To achieve a higher band, you need to increase the frequency of error-free sentences and pay closer attention to basic grammatical rules like article usage and verb forms.

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

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