Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-18

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)

Living in a country where you have to speak a foreign language can cause serious social problems such as becoming socially awkward and also becoming self concious, this could also lead to practical problems such as not being able to communicate could lead to not getting hired for a job due to not being able to communicate.

Social problems could also become very serious especially for those who were extremely extroverted back in their home country, such as not having many friends who are locals could lead to them having depression, becoming extremely self concious due to them not pronounciating words correctly and not communicating with the locals due to fear of being humiliated. This would lead to severe practical problems too as if you become depressed and you're working a remote or online based job or even if you are doing free lance work on websites such as fiverr you would not be able to concentrate at all.

But, it also depends on the type of person you are, those who are introverted since the start by choice and enjoy being alone will not face much issues as they are not used to communicating with people in general and neither do they enjoy it. Practical issues is something they both would have to face especially if they have not learnt the language.

However, if they have learnt the language already and are fluent in it, they are not as likely to face social problems as they would be fluent enough to communicate and therefore would be able to befriend locals, communicate with them easily, understand their culture while actually feeling like they are a part of it rather than feeling left out. This is more likely to fix most practical problems caused due to not being able to speak the language fluently or understand the way the locals speak. This would allow you to get hired much more easily along with being able to maintain a lifestyle you deem comfortable.

In my opinion living in a foreign country where you have to speak a foreign language can cause social and practical problems as most people are usually home sick and this situation only makes it worse. However, it depends on the type of person as every person thinks and feels differently from one another and according to my own knowledge I have seen people who learnt the language before going to a foreign country and still face social and practical problems and even those who did not know the language and learnt how to speak it there and face no such issues. Therefore it depends on the type of person they are as many people do face these issues and a good chunk of people do not face any social or practical problems when they move to a foreign country where they have to speak a foreign language.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both social and practical problems caused by living in a country with a foreign language, and presents a clear position regarding the extent of agreement. The writer explores ideas such as depression, self-consciousness, and employment difficulties. However, some arguments tend to over-generalise and lack fully developed supporting evidence from personal experience or deep examples, keeping the response at a Band 6.0 level. For instance, the discussion on introverted versus extroverted personalities touches on valid points but remains somewhat superficial rather than deeply analysed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance maintained throughout. However, paragraphing is somewhat problematic; the opening sentence is excessively long and acts as a run-on sentence that connects multiple distinct ideas without proper separation or punctuation. Cohesive devices are occasionally repetitive or mechanical (e.g., the heavy reliance on 'such as' and 'this would lead to'), and referencing lacks precision in places. Logical progression between paragraphs exists, but the structural flow is hampered by weak linking phrases and punctuation issues, aligning well with a Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting less common items such as 'extroverted', 'freelance', and 'homesick'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('concious' instead of 'conscious', 'pronounciating' instead of 'pronouncing') and minor word choice issues. The repetition of basic phrases like 'not being able to communicate' reduces the lexical flexibility. While communication is never impeded, these inaccuracies and limited control over sophisticated phrasing restrict the score to a Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The text contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but it suffers from severe run-on sentences and punctuation neglect. For instance, the entire first paragraph consists of a single lengthy sentence joined by commas rather than proper conjunctions or full stops. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement slips and awkward phrasing ('will not face much issues'). While complex structures are attempted, poor punctuation and control over clause boundaries mean that errors are frequent and occasionally cause the reader difficulty, justifying a Band 5.0.

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.