Academic Writing - Model Answer (Task 1)



The bar graphs provide information on how many children were spoken to in a French regional language and then carried on this tradition when they in turn became parents.

600,000 children were often spoken to in Alsatian and Occitan while about a half of this number habitually heard Breton. 100,000 adults were frequently spoken to in Creole and slightly less in Corsican. Occitan was occasionally spoken to over 1 million adults in their childhood, while only 400,000 were spoken to in Breton. The numbers that communicated occasionally using Creole and Corsican ranged between 100,000 and 120,000. Lastly those whose parents occasionally spoke Alsatian to them stood at 230,000.

Keeping with the trend of passing on a French regional language to their children, 400,000 adults spoke Alsatian to their children and 250,000 communicated in Occitan. The remaining three regional languages were not spoken as much. Less than 100,000 adults used them to speak to their children.

Although, Alsatian and Occitan were habitually used by French adults to speak to their children and Occitan was spoken occasionally to a greater extent than Alsatian, those who heard Alsatian in their childhood were more likely to speak it to their own children.

Question taken from Exam Essentials IELTS Practice Tests p.44