Pick out the main features of this bar chart for your overview, write your report on a 20-minute timer, then compare it with a band-8 model answer.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The chart below shows the languages most commonly spoken at home in one multicultural city, in 2000 and 2020.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | 2000 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| English | 72% | 58% |
| Spanish | 12% | 17% |
| Mandarin | 4% | 9% |
| Arabic | 2% | 5% |
| Other | 10% | 11% |
GoPrep wrote this practice question in the style of the exam. It is not an official IELTS question.
An overview names the main trends or differences in one or two sentences, without numbers. These are the features a strong answer picks out:
Spend the first few minutes planning, then write.
0 words of 150 minimum
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Write your own answer first, then compare: how it answers the exact question, what each paragraph does, and which phrases you could borrow.
The bar chart shows the percentage of people who spoke each of five language categories at home in one multicultural city in 2000 and 2020.
Overall, English remained the most widely spoken language at home, but its share fell considerably, while the three named minority languages all grew. The city therefore became more linguistically diverse.
In 2000 English was spoken in 72% of homes, well ahead of Spanish at 12%. By 2020 the English figure had dropped to 58%, a fall of 14 percentage points, and Spanish had risen to 17%, so it was clearly established as the second most common language.
Mandarin and Arabic also expanded, albeit from a lower base. The proportion speaking Mandarin more than doubled, from 4% to 9%, while Arabic increased from 2% to 5%, rising two and a half times. Taken together, Mandarin and Arabic accounted for 14% of homes in 2020, compared with 6% twenty years earlier.
The remaining category, other languages, was relatively stable. It stood at 10% in 2000 and 11% in 2020, and so its share barely changed.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| language spoken at home | main household language |
| multicultural | having many cultures |
| remain dominant | stay the main |
| more than double | become over twice as large |
| gain ground | become more common |
| share | proportion |
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