Some experts believe that it is better for children to begin learning a foreign language at primary school rather than secondary school. Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
Sample Response
One of the highly controversial issuesissue today relates to whether to begin learning a foreign language at primary school or at secondary school. This essay will discussfurther discuss whether extending foreign language study to primary schoolto the primary stages is beneficial and whether disadvantages may ariseif disadvantages may occur in the later stages.
On one side of the debateargument, there are people who argue that the benefits of practising a foreign language at primary school considerably outweigh the associated disadvantagesits disadvantages. The main reason for this viewThe main reason for believing this is that childrenthat the children are at an ideal agehave the golden age period when they are at elementary school. One good illustration of this is some developed countries have been implementing the bilingual language in the primary school’s curriculum for decades, and most of the children can speak the second language as well as their native language. Another reason is that children are much more enthusiastic about exploring and learning new things at a young age. Their timetableThe timetable for them should allow more frequent, shorter sessions to maintainfor maintaining learners’ enthusiasmlearner’s enthusiasm and progress.
Opponents reckon that the students at secondary school are better prepared than primary-school pupilsthan at primary school for acquiring a new language. However, there is no actual evidence to support this view and young childrenchildren at their early ages (ranging from 5 to 10) can even learn faster and have better pronunciationare better at pronunciation. For example, my second daughter started learninghad started to learn English when she was five years old and can speak English more fluently thanmore fluently compared to her older sister, who only began learning Englishwho just learnt English when she attended secondary school.
In my opinion, both arguments have their merits. On balance, however, I tend to believe that learning a second language at an earlier age will have a more positive impact on most of the children around the world.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response has a clear overall preference and supports the benefits of early language learning with relevant explanations and a personal example. Its main limitation is that it barely identifies or evaluates any genuine disadvantage, despite concluding that both sides have merit. The highest-priority improvement is to develop a specific drawback and then compare its significance directly with the stated benefits before reaching the final judgement.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The advantages are relevant and reasonably developed, but the disadvantages are not actually explained or weighed against them.
Add a concrete disadvantage and explicitly show why the advantages remain more significant after that comparison.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is clearly paragraphed and progresses logically, although some linking language is mechanical and the opposing paragraph functions mainly as a rebuttal.
Use the body structure to present a genuine disadvantage before rebutting or outweighing it, creating a more complete argumentative progression.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is varied enough for the topic, but several awkward collocations and imprecise phrases reduce naturalness.
Replace expressions such as “golden age period” and “implementing the bilingual language” with precise, idiomatic academic wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentences, but recurring agreement, article, possessive, and tense errors limit accuracy.
Check noun agreement and tense consistency systematically, particularly in examples that compare children’s learning experiences.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some experts believe that it is better for children to begin learning a foreign language at primary school rather than secondary school. Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.