Task
The charts below show the proportions of British students at one university in England who were able to speak other languages in addition to English, in 2000 and 2010.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Candidate’s Answer
This is an answer written by a candidate who achieved a Band 6.0 score.
The charts show the percentage of the British students, who are able to speak languages other than English, in 2000 and in 2010. In 2000, 20% of the British students were not able to speak another language. But in 2010 the number has decreased to 10%, which is good because it shows that more people have learned other languages well.
The biggest percentage had Spanish only with 30% in 2000. However it has increased by 5% and is in 2010 still the highest percentage with 35%.
In 2000, German only and two other languages were the lowest ones, both with 10%. While in 2010 French only, German only and two other languages show the lowest percentage, while all of them got 10%. All in all, the percentage of German only in 2000 and 2010 hasn’t changed. The percentage of French only has decreased by 5%. No other languages percentage was reduced by the half.from the 20% in 2000 to 10% in 2010.
The number of people, who are speaking two other languages has increased by half: In 2000 there were 10% and in 2010 there are 15%.
Another interesting fact is that the percentage of another language has improved as well: from 15% to 20%.
But still, the most common learned language is Spanish only. In 2000 there were 30% of English students, who spoke it fluently, while in 2010 the number has increased further to 35%.
Examiner’s Comment
The candidate covers all the key features of the task and rounds off the description with an overview. There is some repetition of information and some irrelevant commentary (which is good because it shows that more people have learned other languages well). Information is arranged coherently and there is a clear overall progression, with effective use of cohesive devices, though there is a tendency to rely on dates. The range of vocabulary is adequate for the task, but the writer does not attempt any less common items. There is a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, with a fair degree of accuracy, but the range would need to be wider to achieve a higher score.
