Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-18

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that the only reason for learning a foreign language is in order to travel to or work in a foreign country. Others say that these are not the only reasons why someone should learn a foreign language.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Certain individuals argue that the purpose behind learning another foreign language is because people want to travel or want some work opportunities in foreign countries. While others argue that these are not only the reasons why someone should learn a foreign language. Number of people develop new language skills because either they want to move to new country or have an interest. In my opinion people acquire new language because they want to move to new country.

Nowadays, learning native language is indeed very essential but majority of people are billingual. Despite knowing native language number of people accquire foreign language skills in order to move to new country. A person who wants to travel to new country for travelling or in order to find work opportunities then they should have at least necessary skills of language that people speak in that country. Because language eliminates barriers upto some extent. For instance, a person who has necessary skills of foreign language can easily find work opportunities and will not have problem of getting exposure. On the other hand if a person moves to foreign country and does not know native language of that country then this actually restricts them from certin things.

Alternatively, some individals argue that there can be number of other reason except the purpose of immigration. Some can be interested in learning new language because of curiosity. Due to this reason some individuals know the basics of lot of popular languages across globe. For instance, a person who watches English moves in not good enough in understanding language but curiosity develops and they start learning English language and with the passage of time they become very familiar.

To conclude, learning another language offers substantial benefits. In my opinion, the main reason behind learning new langauge is that people want to move to new country.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task, discussing both views—that learning a foreign language is solely for travel or work, and that there are other reasons such as curiosity—while presenting a clear personal position. The student's opinion that moving to a new country is the primary reason is maintained throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas tends to be repetitive and somewhat limited. For example, the argument regarding travel and work is reiterated across multiple sentences without being deeply extended. While the main ideas are present and the prompt is adequately answered, the overall support would benefit from greater depth and varied reasoning. This places the performance comfortably at Band 6.0 according to the task response descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure, separating the introduction, the discussion of the first view, the discussion of the alternative view, and the conclusion. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty. For instance, transitional phrases like 'Alternatively' and 'To conclude' are used, but referencing can be unclear, such as 'Because language eliminates barriers upto some extent' standing alone as a fragment, or repetitive use of 'a person who wants to travel...'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to divide the arguments, but the logical progression between sentences occasionally feels disjointed due to grammatical phrasing issues. This aligns with the Band 6 descriptor for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'substanial benefits', 'curiosity', and 'exposure'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice inaccuracies throughout the text, such as 'billingual' instead of bilingual, 'accquire' instead of acquire, 'certin' instead of certain, and 'individals' instead of individuals. Furthermore, awkward phrasing like 'watches English moves in not good enough' impedes the precision of the argument. Despite these errors, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning, matching the criteria for a Band 5.5 lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures such as 'A person who wants to travel...' and 'On the other hand if a person moves...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and punctuation issues, including missing articles ('in order to move to new country'), subject-verb agreement issues ('majority of people are billingual'), and sentence fragments ('Because language eliminates barriers upto some extent.'). While these errors do not completely obscure the central meaning of the essay, they occur regularly and restrict the control over complex structures, corresponding to a Band 5.5 performance.

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

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