IELTS Essays – Band 8

Many parents encourage young people to leave home when they become older, while others think they should stay at home with the family. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

With the tremendous influence of modernisation, remarkable changes have taken place in the family structure to such an extent that nowadays, youngsters are motivated by their parents to live alone as they grow up. However, some people are of the view that it is more practical for a youngster to live with their family.

On the one hand, there are many positive aspects to youths living away from their parents at young age. This provides the opportunity to young people to live a life on their own terms and make any decisions without the interference of their parents. Besides, living alone not only makes them independent but also makes them self-reliant, which is a crucial life skill to their successful career. For instance, managing all the house chores such as cleaning, paying bills, cooking and so on will make them well experienced at learning and managing diverse activities and will also boost their confidence.

On the other hand, there is no denying the fact that youngsters living away from their family may find themselves in circumstances that may adversely affect their life. Naïve and inexperienced young people in the absence of parental supervision are more likely to fall prey to bad influence and dangerous activities, such as drugs or alcohol consumption, which may jeopardise their career or lead them astray from moral values. However, this situation is less likely to take place with youngsters still living with their parents. Besides, emotional bonding and family relationships can be maintained better if everyone is living together under one roof.

In my opinion, although encouraging youngsters to live alone may lead them to learn various life skills, negative aspects and risks associated with living alone can far outweigh the benefits.

This response covers the task topic well, by discussing the positive and negative aspects of living alone as a young adult, and the writer’s opinion has also been included. Paragraphing helps to present ideas in an orderly way, and cohesion and coherence are maintained throughout the essay. There is some repetitive use of the word ‘make’ in the first body paragraph, which could have been avoided. Apart from that, the writer’s vocabulary seems to be quite rich and allows them to communicate ideas precisely and clearly. Overall, this essay seems to be worthy of IELTS Band 8.

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Many people believe that learning a foreign language is a very difficult task. What are the most difficult things about learning a foreign language? What is the best way to overcome them? Explain and include your personal experience or knowledge of these problems.

It is true that acquiring new language skills is by no means an easy task. Language learners might encounter several challenges such as unfamiliar accents or grammar structures a foreign language. However, in my opinion, such difficulties can be tackled by a well-rounded education system.

When it comes to languages, it is undeniably crucial to get used to a native accent and intonation for effective communication. However, picking up an accurate accent can be enormously difficult, especially for adult learners because of their lack of language learning ability. If a language learner has an unrecognisable accent and intonation, they would not be understood by native speakers. On top of that, each language has different grammar and typical grammatical sequencing of words. For example, Korean sentences always end with verbs whilst English not, which means that a Korean English-learner should the correct order of words.

Despite the aforementioned difficulties, I strongly believe that everyone can master a foreign language when a couple of feasible steps are taken. Firstly, it is more important than anything to start learning a new language at a young age. By incorporating foreign language programmes in the primary school curriculum, children can easily be exposed to languages of the world and eventually acquire language skills without difficulties. Secondly, the government can financially subsidise schools to run student exchange programmes that help adolescents to get experiences abroad and make friends overseas while improving their foreign language in a way.

In conclusion, I believe that individuals can have difficulties in learning a new language because of different accents and unfamiliar grammar, however, these problems can be overcome by a good quality of education system subsidised by governments.

The writer covered the task by talking about some difficult aspects of learning a new language and steps to overcome them. The ideas are presented in an orderly way, their logical sequencing and the use of paragraphing make this essay easy to follow. Skillful use of linking words and expressions helps the writer maintain coherence and cohesion. Word choice needs some more attention in this essay (see suggested corrections for expressions underlined in blue), however, overall this essay seems to be worthy of IELTS Band 8.

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