Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-29

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)

Residing in a country where we have to speak a foreign language is really difficult and can lead to serious practical as well as social problems.

Starting with why I disagree is because whenever we travel overseas we should often learn a bit about the location's culture, history, native language, tradition's, food. This helps us to communicate smoothly and effectively. In addition to this we also have many features in the palm of our hand a 'mobile phone' which helps us to translate their language or either convey our message to them and also many countries are now adopting english as their secondary language.

For instance I travelled to singapore during my summer break and i was felling anxious about how can I communicate with the locals but once I landed I realised that many of 'em are comfortable with english and also If someone don't know english I simply pulled out my mobile phone to help me translate the language which was very easy and handy sometimes.

Reasons for which I partially agree is because we cannot master a foreign language at once, it requires continous efforts and practice We often tend to make silly mistakes which might affect the people living there, a small pronounciation mistake from our end might make matters worse. People around us start to judge us and act unfriendly with us. Secondly, many countries are not well versed with english speaking or listening yet.

For example My friend visited China during her winter break she was all prepared but as soon as she landed she was awestruck that people there cannot speak english neither can she speak chinese. She was standed on the airport for more than 4 hours she said an elderly woman saw her plight and helped her by installing a translation app which helped her survive there for 4 days.

Hence, I conclude that I partially agree and disagree with the statement of "Living in a country where we have to speak foreign language can lead us to serious problems" because this has it's own benfits as well as drawbacks.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both sides of the issue regarding living in a foreign-language country, covering both practical problems and benefits. However, the student's stance is somewhat contradictory, stating at various points that they both disagree and partially agree, which leads to a slightly unclear overall position. Ideas are presented and supported with personal examples, such as traveling to Singapore and a friend's experience in China. While the arguments are relevant, they tend to lack deeper academic extension and remain somewhat superficial. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, fitting the criteria for Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a generally coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure paragraphs around different viewpoints. However, cohesion is frequently faulty or mechanical. The transitions between paragraphs, such as 'Starting with why I disagree' and 'Reasons for which I partially agree', are overly colloquial and lack smooth integration. Paragraphing is also somewhat disrupted by mixing distinct ideas within single paragraphs without clear logical progression. Referencing and cohesive devices are occasionally repetitive or inaccurate, placing this performance firmly in Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating everyday concepts and relating personal anecdotes. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary items like 'anxious', 'plight', and 'awestruck', though these are accompanied by noticeable word-choice errors and awkward collocations, such as 'standed on the airport' instead of 'stranded at the airport'. Spelling and morphological issues are also present, including 'continous' and 'pronounciation'. Because the vocabulary is sufficient for communication despite these limitations, a score of 5.5 is appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, though complex structures are often faulty or run-on, such as in the opening sentence of the second paragraph. There are frequent grammatical errors, including missing articles ('pulled out my mobile phone', 'on airport'), tense inconsistencies, and punctuation issues like run-on sentences lacking appropriate conjunctions or full stops. While these errors do not completely impede communication, their frequency prevents the essay from reaching a higher band, making Band 5.0 a fair evaluation.

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