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 given pie charts show the responseselucidate the opinions of some British foreign language teachers about the primary reasons why students learncauses for students to learn a second language. Overall, career, travel and purchasing overseas property are three main reasons which were reported earlier for people to develop a second language skill and recent changes show that more people started learning the language due to other factors like social contact. According to the first diagram, one-third of the teachers in Britain who teach a foreign language believe that people learn a second language so that they can travel. According to them, career prospects arecareer prospect is the second most important reason that was cited by 26% of the teachersdrives just over one-fourth of the language learners. Interestingly, 19% of teachers cited learning a language19% of students learned the language to buy property overseasto be able to buy property while personal development and social contact were each cited by 7% of teacherspersonal development and social contact each as a reason were reported by 7% of teachers. The smallest proportion of teachersThe least percentage of tutors believe that people learn a language because of a foreign partnerto have a foreign partner. The second pie chart, however, shows that teachers reported several recent changesthere had been some changes and buying property overseasproperty purchase in a foreign country was reported as the largest reported recent increase in language learningthe main reason for learning a language. Business or work, according to this chart,Career, according to this diagram, was the second-largest reported increasesecond most favoured reason while social contact accounted for 15%social contact attracted. Only 3% of teachers at that survey believed that people learn a second language to travel. All other reasons contributed to just above 10% of student's learning a foreign language.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response accurately reports most proportions in the first chart and identifies overseas property purchase as the largest area of recent increase. However, coverage of the second chart is selective, and the claim that all remaining reasons contributed just above 10% is inaccurate. Prioritise a complete comparison of the major second-chart shares, especially social contact and no change at 15% each, while checking sentence completeness.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The first chart is described accurately and the leading changes in the second are identified, but several significant second-chart categories are omitted or misrepresented.
Include the 15% shares for social contact and no change and replace the inaccurate generalisation about all remaining reasons with precise figures.
Coherence and Cohesion
The chart-by-chart progression is easy to follow, though the overview is somewhat vague and one incomplete comparison interrupts the flow.
Give each chart a clearly developed detail section and complete every comparative link rather than ending with a fragment.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied enough to discuss reasons and changes, but awkward collocations and imprecise wording appear repeatedly.
Use natural phrases such as 'reasons for learning,' 'career prospects,' and 'the smallest proportion of teachers.'
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response attempts a range of complex structures, but agreement, sentence-completion, and possessive errors reduce control.
Proofread for subject–verb agreement, complete clauses after 'while,' and correct plural possession such as 'students' reasons.'
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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.