Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-25

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 considerd that the livingi in a country where individuals are required to communicate in foreign language can lead to a various sociial and practical diffulties. I firmly with this view because laguage barriers can make daily conversation challenges can lead to several aspects of life.

On the one hand, people who cannot speak local language language may struggle to express their opinion , understand conversation and make friends. This language barriers can make them isloated in every phas of their life such as education and emplyment. For instance, a foreign student may find it difficult to communicate with classmate or participate in a group discussion if they have limited knowledge of the language, as a result, they spend more time alone and have fewer oppourtunities to build relationship with other pupils.

On the other hand, another issue of language barrier can cause practical completingdiffulties in daily life. Foreigners may have problems using public transport, visiting hospitals, dealing with banks or completing offical docoments. Even a small mistake a lead to a concern can lead to major trouble. For example, a person who cannot interpret medical bills properly mayb use medicine incorrectly. In contrast, people may struggle to follow a rule and if possible government does not give them residentship.

In conclusion, I strongly belive that living in abroad can cause numerous serious social and practical problems particularly for individuals with limited language skills. However, these diffulties are not permenent indviduals need to learn foereign language first whether it is for studies or employment because having the free command of language people can easily communciate with others.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt, agreeing with the statement that living in a foreign country where a new language must be spoken causes both social and practical problems. A clear position is maintained throughout the essay. The student develops relevant ideas, supporting them with understandable examples such as foreign students struggling to make friends and individuals facing difficulties with medical bills or public transport. However, some arguments lack full extension and suffer from minor expression flaws that border on under-development. Overall, the task is adequately covered, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing social and practical aspects respectively, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas. Cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', 'For instance', and 'In conclusion' are employed to structure the text, although some referencing and transitional links are occasionally faulty or mechanical, as seen in the slightly disjointed flow within sentences like 'as a result, they spend more time alone'. Overall logical progression is present, fitting the Band 6 criteria.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student attempts a range of vocabulary suitable for the task, including terms like 'isolation', 'employment', 'residentship', and 'communicate'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, such as 'considerd', 'livingi', 'sociial', 'diffulties', 'laguage', 'emplyment', 'oppourtunities', and 'permenent'. While these errors do not completely impede communication because the context remains clear, their frequency prevents the lexical score from reaching Band 6.5 or higher.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak due to frequent errors, including missing prepositions or articles ('livingi in a country', 'speak local language language', 'living in abroad'), incomplete grammatical structures ('I firmly with this view'), and punctuation slips. Although communication is rarely fully obscured, the density of basic and complex sentence errors places this response firmly at Band 5.0.

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