Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-19

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)

I do belive that serious issues and challenges arises while living in a foreign country, where a native person has to speak a foreign language.

At present, many people around the globe travels foreign countries for various purpose that may include education, employment, business, health and medicines, and tourism. Living in a country that has its own language, culture and way of living creates may problem to a foreign people. Language barrier is a major problem that eventually can cause social issues. For example, a Nepalese student travelling to South Korea for educational purpose might face challanges to live in the country where only Korean Language is spoken. The difference in language leads to misunderstanding. With language, various social problems may arise as they have their own social culture, tradition, way of greeting that is not familiar to foreign people. Different meanings are generated by as single word, when two languages are spoken at a time. Similarly, in employment purpose, the employee might not understand their tasks, duties and job description, which leads to unprecented practical problems. There arises conflict in language, and eventually hamper personal life of the people causing them to be victim of anxiety, depression and mental illness.

However, with a rapid development of technologies, software and artificial intelligence, most of the people can translate foreign language within a second. The real-time translation helps people to understand the language of that country. This is only beneficial when a perosn has access to technological devices anytime with them. While, tourists and ambassadors can have guides and translators to assist in translating foreign language.

To conclude the statement, people travelling to foreign country must be fluent in speaking foreign language they are travelling to other coutries. It helps them to be aware of their language, culture, and traditions which helps to reduce mis-intrepration and prevent possible social problems and issues in future.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both social and practical problems caused by living in a country with a foreign language, and presents a clear position that you agree with the statement. Ideas are extended with relevant examples, such as a Nepalese student moving to South Korea. However, some arguments tend to over-generalise or remain slightly under-developed, particularly regarding the counter-argument involving technology. The conclusion also introduces a prescriptive stance that travelers must be fluent, which slightly shifts the focus from the prompt's question of whether speaking a foreign language causes serious problems. Overall, the response meets the core requirements of the task appropriately, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors where all parts are addressed with relevant ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical progression from introduction to body paragraphs and a conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised, separating the introduction, body arguments, counter-argument, and conclusion. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or faulty, such as the abrupt transition in 'While, tourists and ambassadors...' and the awkward linking phrase 'To conclude the statement'. Referencing is generally clear, but the connection between sentences in the second body paragraph feels slightly disjointed due to sudden shifts between examples. Nevertheless, the progression of ideas is sufficient to follow the writer's argument without major confusion, fitting the Band 6 descriptor for coherence and cohesion well.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'unprecedented practical problems' and 'mis-interpretation'. However, there are numerous lexical and collocational errors throughout the essay. Examples include spelling and word form mistakes like 'belive', 'arises' instead of 'arise', 'travels foreign countries' instead of 'travels to foreign countries', 'may problem' instead of 'many problems', 'perosn', and 'mis-intrepration'. These errors are noticeable, but they do not impede communication since the reader can still grasp the intended meaning. The vocabulary range is minimally sufficient to convey the arguments, placing it squarely within Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement, such as 'serious issues and challenges arises', and preposition omissions or misuses, such as 'travelling to South Korea for educational purpose' and 'in employment purpose'. Punctuation and article usage also show recurrent flaws, such as 'a rapid development of technologies' and 'speaking foreign language'. While these errors do not completely obscure meaning, they occur frequently enough across the text to cause occasional difficulty for the reader, matching the standard characteristics of a Band 5 performance.

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

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