Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-16

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)

It is a widespread argument that living in a foreign country where we need to speak a foreign language can cause serious social and practical problems. I agree that it does create problems, because communication is needed in daily activities.

Beyond tradional issues, lack of language fluency cause hurdles in everyday tasks. This is due to the fact that even simple daily tasks such as opening a bank account or navigating a street requires knowledge of the language. For example, an immigrant who is moving to Germany would need a bank account to start working, or has to register at the local residence office which would need a lot of paperwork which is not possible to deal with without being able to speak the language. Therefore, it is clear that speaking a language is necessary to even perform simple daily tasks.

Like hurdles in daily activities, not being able to communicate in the local langauge also creates a lot of social issues as well. Because being able to make new friends requires communication or hanging out with collegues requires being ablt to communciate in the local language if not being able to communciate in the local langauge will leva ethe person out in total isloation

In conclusion, I strongly believe that living in a foreign country without knowing the language creates significant practival and social problems. This is because language barriers make hurdles in everyday tasks and can put the person in total isolation.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student addresses the prompt by taking a clear position that living in a foreign country and speaking a foreign language indeed causes social and practical problems. The body paragraphs introduce relevant ideas such as administrative hurdles and social isolation, supporting them with a practical example about moving to Germany. However, the ideas are somewhat limited in scope and development, and the conclusion contains a minor repetition of points. Crucially, as noted in the length check, the response contains 244 words, falling just short of the 250-word minimum requirement. This negative constraint violation requires a slight downward adjustment to the Task Achievement score. Therefore, the overall performance sits comfortably at a Band 5.5, balancing the clear stance and relevant examples against the under-length penalty and somewhat under-developed support.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a logical overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing practical and social issues, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'Beyond traditional issues', 'For example', and 'Therefore', though some transitions feel slightly mechanical. The most noticeable issue in this criterion is found in the third paragraph, which consists of a single, highly convoluted run-on sentence ('Because being able to make new friends requires communication...'). This lack of internal punctuation and cohesive structuring makes the progression heavy to follow. Referencing is generally adequate, but due to the structural faults in the third paragraph and occasional mechanical cohesion, the response aligns best with the Band 6.0 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating topic-related terms such as 'immigrant', 'communication', 'language barriers', and 'isolation'. However, there are several noticeable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'tradional' instead of 'traditional', 'langauge' instead of 'language', 'collegues' instead of 'colleagues', and 'practival' instead of 'practical'. There is also an attempt at less common phrases, but these are often undermined by typographical and lexical inaccuracies. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the core message without completely impeding communication, the frequency of spelling slips and minor lexical inaccuracies prevents the response from achieving a higher band. This performance is characteristic of a Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing dependent clauses and conditional structures such as 'This is due to the fact that...' and '...which is not possible to deal with without being able to...'. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. The third paragraph contains a severely flawed run-on sentence lacking proper punctuation and featuring a fragmented structure ('...if not being able to communciate in the local langauge will leva ethe person out in total isloation'). Furthermore, there is a subject-verb agreement error ('lack of language fluency cause'). While simple sentences tend to be controlled, errors in complex structures and punctuation occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. These features reflect the Band 5.0 descriptor profile, where a limited range of structures and frequent errors in complex attempts are present.

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

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