Task
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?
Candidate’s Answer
This is an answer written by a candidate who achieved a Band 6.5 score.
It is clear that living in a foreign country has its own benefits and drawbacks to consider. I agree with this statement, however I think that anybody coming in another country should respect national culture. In this essay, I would like to outline the social and practical problems.
The social problems would be language barrier, which means that a person coming from another country might not be able to speak and understand the language which might be a problem as far a person who is living in a country, and a person who came in the country. Another problem is linked to the language barrier, but it might influence the behaviour of others. An individual who come into the country might offend others with their behaviour or language. For example; some cultures like English people prefer to be very polite and say things differently from other cultures. Therefore a person who doesn’t know how to behave in a particular culture might offend others around him.
The practical problems would be misunderstanding of culture. That means that a person who visits other countries does not understand other culture and he behaves as he wants to.
The second practical problem is finding a job. An individual who works in foreign country might not be appropriate for people who he serves. For example if an individual works in a restaurant, the people who live in a country and they were born in that country might not respect and not like the behaviour of a person who works in a restaurant, it might be because, the cultures are different.
To summarize, it can be said that there are a lot of misconceptions which people have when they come in a foreign country, and in my opinion and from my personal experience people should educate themselves in order to know how to behave in different situations with different cultures.
Examiner’s Comment
The candidate deals with both parts of the prompt and addresses some social and practical problems that might be experienced in a foreign language environment. Ideas are supported by examples, though there is room for further development here. Organisation is logical and there is clear progression throughout the response. Cohesive devices are used appropriately [Another problem | For example | Therefore | That means … | The second … problem | To summarize]. There is a sufficient range of vocabulary to allow some flexibility and precision and to demonstrate awareness of style and collocation [language barrier | linked to | influence the behaviour | offend | misunderstanding | misconceptions]. There is a mix of simple and complex sentence forms including subordinate clauses [which means that | a person who], modal verbs [should | might | would] and gerunds [finding a job]. Grammatical control is generally good as is the use of punctuation, although the first sentence in the second paragraph is incomplete.
