The pie charts below show responses by teachers of foreign languages in Britain to a survey concerning why their students are learning a foreign language. The first chart shows the main reason for learning a foreign language. The second chart shows how many teachers felt that there has been a recent change in the reason.
Sample Response
The pie charts illustrate the results of a survey conducted in Britainsurvey results conducted in Britain to reveal the opinionsopinion of foreign-language teachersforeign languages teachers about their students’ motivations for attendingmotivation on attending their classes. The first chart shows the common factors that attract pupils to learn languages while the second chart displays the recent changes in those factors perceived by the teachers.
It can be clearly seen that there are seven categories that teachers consider to be main reasonscategories which the teachers consider as the main reasons. They are:They are - having a foreign partner, travel, business/work, buying properties overseas, general interest, social contacts and personal development.
To start with, based on teachers’ perceptions, business or workbusiness overseas trip and travelling were two dominantdomineering reasons for pupils to learn a foreign languageother languages. However, most of them agreed that there were different changes for both. More and more teachers thought that business purposes were the major reasons besides the others, but the percentage of those choosing travel as the main purpose fell dramatically from 33% to 3% of the total percentage.
Subsequently, 7% of teachers reported thatthere were 7 % of teachers who agreed that social contactsocial contacts factor was the main reason, and 15% reported a recent increase for this reasonit even doubled recently. On the other hand, while 7% of teachers identifiedeven though 7 % of teachers considering personal development as one of the main reasons, 4% reported a recent increase for this reason3 % of them agreed that it was not valid anymore. Thus, general interest and having a foreign partner, two less common main reasons, had recent-increase figures of 6% and 4%, respectivelygeneral interest and foreign partner which was thought as the minor factors has not changed at all. Interestingly, 15% of teachers reported15 % of teachers reporting that there had been no recent change in students' reasons for learning a foreign languagethat there were no changes for all of the categories which considered as the main reason for students to study a foreign language.
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response identifies several categories and reports some individual percentages, but it misinterprets the second chart as a later version of the first. This leads to unsupported claims that travel fell from 33% to 3%, social contact doubled, and some reasons became invalid, while the largest reported recent increase—buying property overseas at 34%—is omitted. Prioritise defining each chart’s distinct measure before making comparisons.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
Some categories and values are identified, but the two distinct survey measures are conflated and several key features are omitted or misrepresented.
Describe the first chart as main reasons and the second as teachers reporting recent increases, without treating them as before-and-after data.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response has a visible introduction and grouped body paragraphs, but faulty comparisons and unclear references disrupt the logical progression.
Organise one detail paragraph around the main-reason distribution and another around the separate recent-increase responses.
Lexical Resource
There is some topic vocabulary and attempted variation, but frequent inaccurate choices such as ‘domineering’ and ‘not valid anymore’ distort meaning.
Use precise survey language including ‘most common reason’, ‘teachers reported an increase’, ‘largest share’, and ‘smallest proportion’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Frequent errors in clause formation, agreement, articles, prepositions, and verb forms make several statements difficult to follow.
Build complete sentences around a clear subject and reporting verb, then check agreement between percentages, teachers, reasons, and verbs.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The pie charts below show responses by teachers of foreign languages in Britain to a survey concerning why their students are learning a foreign language. The first chart shows the main reason for learning a foreign language. The second chart shows how many teachers felt that there has been a recent change in the reason.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.