Writing Task 2: Opinion (Agree/Disagree) Essay: Question 1
Syllabus W.task2
Some universities require every student, whatever their degree subject, to study a foreign language as part of their course.
To what extent do you agree or disagree that all university students should be required to study a foreign language?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
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Worked solution
Examiner notes: why this is a band 9 response
Task Response
The introduction paraphrases the prompt and states an unambiguous, sustained position (“I strongly agree that every university student… should be required to study a foreign language”) that is never diluted or contradicted later. Both body paragraphs develop a genuinely distinct main idea in support of that single position (professional advantage, then a cultural/cognitive shift in outlook) each with a fully extended, specific example rather than a vague assertion, and the conclusion restates the position without introducing any new, unaddressed idea.
Coherence & Cohesion
Each body paragraph opens with a clear topic sentence (“The most compelling reason is…”, “A second, less obvious benefit is…”) that signals its function in the overall argument. Ideas within paragraphs are linked through referencing (“this requirement”, “a physics student who…”) and logical connectors used sparingly and appropriately, rather than a mechanical list of transition words, and the essay progresses in a clear, easy-to-follow line from claim to example to implication in every paragraph.
Lexical Resource
The essay uses precise, topic-appropriate vocabulary (“foreclose”, “insular, ethnocentric assumptions”, “inadvertently reinforce”) that is varied and natural rather than showing off memorised phrases, and collocations are used accurately throughout (e.g. “widens career opportunities”, “clear advantage”). No word is repeated where a natural synonym or paraphrase would serve instead.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
A wide range of structures is used with full control: complex sentences with relative clauses (“a mechanical engineering graduate… who had completed two compulsory years of French, was later chosen…”), conditional-style reasoning (“far less likely to question”), and varied sentence openings. There are no errors of agreement, tense or word form anywhere in the response.
Common pitfalls specific to this task
See commonMistakes above: the most damaging is treating “language learning is good” as if it were the same claim as “language learning should be compulsory for everyone”. A band 9 response must argue for the compulsory element specifically, not just for languages in general.