Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-10-01

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)

There is an own going debate about that if we live in a foreign country we have to speak the language of the specific country and it will cause social as well as practical problems. I totally agree with this statement because living in a foreign country can sometimes be very hard.

The main reason for this is that if we live in a foreign country we have to speak foreign language and most of the time it is very difficult to speak a foreign language. Firstly, if we plan to move abroad we should learn the language of that country. For instance, if some people want to go to Malaysia they should firstly learn the language to survive in that country. After this, they still have to face serious social problems. Furthermore, they cannot easily communicate with Malaysian people also some people can also face racism in a foreign country. For example, my brother moved to Saudi Arabia and he had toothache but he was unable to tell the dentist the actual problem because he was not proficient in Arabic. Some people also faces cultural differences in foreign country.

Another significant reason is that a person also has to face a lot of practical problems. If students want to get higher education, he will face sufficient hurdles due to the language. A person will face problems when he want to get employed because a company will always give priority to locals rather than foreign employees.

To conclude, I completely believe that living in a foreign country can cause serious social as well as practical problems because we have to speak a foreign language.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position agreeing with the prompt and discussing both social and practical problems. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the social impact of facing cultural differences and racism is mentioned briefly without deep elaboration, while the personal example about the brother in Saudi Arabia helps illustrate the point. Similarly, the practical problem regarding employment is stated rather generally with the idea that companies prefer locals. To move to a higher level, all main arguments need to be fully extended and supported with consistent, detailed explanations and well-integrated examples throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate social and practical problems, and basic cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Furthermore', and 'Another significant reason' help guide the reader through the text. However, referencing and cohesion can sometimes feel mechanical or repetitive, such as the frequent repetition of 'foreign country' and 'speak a foreign language' across consecutive sentences. To achieve a higher standard, the progression of ideas needs to be smoother, and referencing words should be managed with greater flexibility to avoid a formulaic structure.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and phrases such as 'proficient in Arabic', 'cultural differences', and 'higher education'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations that reflect a limited range, such as 'own going debate' instead of ongoing, and 'faces cultural differences' where the plural agreement is incorrect. Word choices are sometimes repetitive, relying heavily on basic terms. To progress, the writer needs to expand their control of less common lexical items, ensure greater precision in word choice and collocations, and eliminate spelling and word-form errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, with attempts at subordinate clauses such as 'if we live in a foreign country we have to speak the language'. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, but they rarely impede communication. Examples of errors include subject-verb agreement issues like 'If students want to get higher education, he will face' and awkward phrasing such as 'about that if we live'. Punctuation and article usage also occasionally slip. To reach the next level, the writer needs to produce a greater variety of complex structures with higher accuracy and reduce the frequency of basic grammatical errors.

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