IELTS Essay Bank · Task 2 Academic · Two-part question
Disappearing Minority Languages: Band 7 Sample Essay
317 words · Topic: Globalisation, Culture & arts ·
The question
Every year, a number of the world's smaller languages stop being spoken as their last remaining speakers pass away.
Why are so many minority languages dying out? Do you think efforts should be made to keep them alive?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
Band 7 sample essay
Highlighted = useful vocabularyMany smaller languages are now spoken only by a few elderly people. In my view, this decline is mainly driven by economic and social pressure, and although not every language can be saved, serious efforts should be made to preserve them.
The main reason minority languages are dying out is that they offer few economic opportunities. In a globalised world, jobs, higher education and online content are dominated by a few major languages such as English and Mandarin. Parents who want their children to be succesful therefore often speak the dominant language at home, and within one or two generation the minority language is no longer passed down. Urbanisation make this worse, because young people who move to cities quickly adopt the language of their colleagues and rarely use their mother tongue.
Education and the media are another factor. In many countries schooling has traditionally been delivered only in the national language, and in the past some governments even punished children for speaking their ancestral language in class. Today, television, streaming services and social media reinforce the same pattern, since very little content is produced in languages with only a few thousand speakers.
Despite these pressures, I believe that efforts to keep minority languages alive are worthwhile. A language carries a community's history, oral literature and local knowledge, for example about plants or farming, and much of this is lost when the language disappear. Revival is also possible. Welsh, which was in steep decline in the twentieth century, is now taught in schools across Wales and has its own television channel, and the number of children learning it have grown considerably since the 1970s.
In conclusion, minority languages are disappearing mainly because they have lost their economic and social value. Governments and communities should support them through bilingual education and media, because once a language is gone, an irreplaceable part of human culture is lost with it.
Word count: 317
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Why this is Band 7: criterion by criterion
Task Response
Band 7Both questions are answered fully: the causes (economic pressure, urbanisation, schooling and media) are explained, and the writer gives a clear view that efforts are worthwhile, supported by the value of local knowledge and the Welsh example. The position is consistent from the introduction to the conclusion. At times the essay over-generalises — "very little content is produced in languages with only a few thousand speakers" is asserted without illustration — and the second question, while clearly answered, is developed slightly less than the first. This is a secure Band 7 response.
Coherence and Cohesion
Band 7Ideas are logically organised and each paragraph has a clear central topic. Cohesive devices are used with some flexibility, for example "therefore" placed mid-sentence, "the same pattern" referring back to the previous sentence, and "Despite these pressures" linking the causes to the writer's opinion. The paragraph openers are a little predictable ("The main reason…", "…another factor", "In conclusion"), but progression is clear throughout, which matches Band 7.
Lexical Resource
Band 7The essay shows a sufficient range of vocabulary for flexibility and precision, with well-chosen topic items such as "passed down", "ancestral language", "local knowledge" and "reinforce the same pattern". Collocations are generally natural ("steep decline", "economic opportunities"). There is an occasional spelling error — "succesful" should be successful — but it does not affect meaning, so Band 7 is appropriate.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Band 6The range of structures is good, including relative clauses, a concessive clause ("although not every language can be saved") and a time clause ("once a language is gone"). However, errors are more frequent than Band 7 allows, and most involve agreement or plurals: "one or two generation" (generations), "Urbanisation make this worse" (makes), "when the language disappear" (disappears) and "the number of children learning it have grown" (has grown). These errors rarely reduce communication, but because they recur in almost every paragraph, grammar is rated Band 6 — the criterion that is holding the overall score back.
Useful vocabulary and collocations
- economic opportunities
- chances to earn money or build a career; a key phrase for explaining language shift.
- passed down
- handed from one generation to the next; also used for traditions and skills.
- ancestral language
- the language of your ancestors; a precise alternative to old language.
- local knowledge
- understanding that belongs to a particular place and community, such as knowledge of plants or weather.
- an irreplaceable part of human culture
- strong evaluative phrase for a conclusion; irreplaceable is more precise than very important.
How this essay could reach Band 8
- 1Proofread specifically for subject–verb agreement and plurals: urbanisation makes, the language disappears, two generations, the number … has grown. Removing these four errors alone would lift grammar to Band 7.
- 2Illustrate general claims with a brief, concrete detail — for example, what kind of content is missing online in small languages and why that matters to teenagers.
- 3Develop the argument for revival a little further by explaining why the Welsh approach worked (for instance, Welsh-medium schools), so the second question is as fully supported as the first.
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