Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-22

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)

If we are Living in a country where we have to speak a foreign language it can cause a serious problem and some can cause practical problem also.

Firstly if we a living in a different country where we don"t know there native language we cannot commuincate with the locals.We don"t know how we can ask for anything if we are in trouble or if we need anything due to the language barrier between us.

I completely agree with this statement for example if we are travelling in other country and we don"t know how to talk with them what would we do then.If we are lost somewhere and don"t know any directions how can we ask the locals to help us if they cannot understand us.

In some articles they have written the tourist who have a language barrier get rob easily and sometimes the local charge them twice the price of orginal things.

Famous youtuber Mark visited pakistan and have beautiful tour in pakistan.But he was robbed at the karachi sea view by a local horse rider as we was charging him double the fare of one horse ride.This all happens because of the language.

In my opinon i would say we should know some basic language and words of foreign language as it will help us to communicate with there nationality peoples and it would be fun to learn a different language which will help us in other countries.

Also it shows a symbol of respect to the respective country as we show them we value there culture and language.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both social and practical problems related to living in or visiting a country where a foreign language is spoken, and presents a clear position agreeing with the statement. Ideas are supported with examples, such as the mention of a YouTuber visiting Pakistan, which adds a concrete illustration to the argument. However, the development of ideas remains somewhat basic and relies heavily on personal anecdotes and generalizations rather than deeper analysis. The arguments could be extended further to fully explore the broader social consequences mentioned in the prompt. Nevertheless, the main parts of the task are adequately covered, leading to a solid Band 6.0 performance for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable progression of ideas, moving from general communication issues to practical problems like overcharging, and finally to a concluding opinion. Paragraphing is attempted, but the paragraphs are very short and sometimes consist of only one or two sentences, indicating a lack of thorough paragraph development. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Firstly' and 'Also', but referencing and linking between sentences are occasionally faulty or overly mechanical (e.g., 'This all happens because of the language'). Overall, the logical flow is present, but structural control over cohesion and paragraphing aligns best with Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to communicate basic ideas about language barriers, travelling, and being overcharged. However, the range of vocabulary is limited, and there are noticeable errors in word choice, spelling, and phrasing (e.g., 'commuincate', 'there' instead of 'their', 'orginal', 'opinon'). The writer attempts some less common vocabulary items like 'respective country' and 'barrier', but frequent minor slips and a reliance on simple lexico-grammatical structures restrict the score to a Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but punctuation and grammatical accuracy are weak throughout. There is a total absence of proper punctuation in many sentences, run-on sentences, and basic capitalization errors (e.g., starting sentences with lowercase letters in places, missing apostrophes in 'don"t'). Complex structures are often faulty, and grammatical errors such as subject-verb agreement issues ('tourist who have... get rob easily') and incorrect pronoun usage appear frequently. While the meaning remains mostly clear to the reader, the density of errors places this firmly in the Band 5.0 category.

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

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