IELTS Speaking Part 2: Something You Did to Learn Another Language – Model Answers 2026

This is a new Part 2 topic in the official IELTS Speaking question bank for May–August 2026. You have one minute to prepare and two minutes to speak. Start directly with what you did.

Cue Card

Describe a thing you did to learn another language.

You should say:
– What language you learned
– What you did
– How it helped you learn the language
– And how you felt about it

Model Answer

The most effective thing I did to improve my English was to stop watching content with subtitles in my native language and replace them with English subtitles only, and then eventually with no subtitles at all.

I started doing this deliberately around the age of sixteen. The initial approach was to use shows I had already watched in my own language, so the plot was familiar and I could focus entirely on what the English dialogue sounded like rather than on following the story. Friends was the first series I used for this. I had seen most of it before. The dialogue is fast and colloquial, which made it much harder than I expected, but also more useful than anything formally paced.

The process was uncomfortable in a specific way. There were stretches of conversation where I understood almost nothing. The natural response is to switch the subtitles back on or to stop watching. I did both of those things several times in the first month. What kept me going was noticing, gradually, that the periods of confusion were getting shorter. By the end of the first series I was catching around sixty percent without subtitles. By the end of the second I was at something closer to ninety.

What the method built that other approaches had not was an ear for natural spoken English at actual conversational speed. Not the English of textbooks, which is clear, deliberate, and does not reflect how anyone actually speaks. The contractions, the dropped words, the rhythm of informal speech. When I eventually began speaking to English speakers in person, I understood them immediately rather than asking them to slow down or repeat. That had not happened before. The difference was significant enough to feel like a threshold had been crossed rather than a gradual improvement.

Why This Works

The answer describes a specific method with a specific starting point (Friends, age sixteen, a familiar show). The description of the process, including the discomfort and the temptation to quit, makes it feel genuine. The closing observation about the threshold being crossed rather than gradual improvement is precise and memorable.

📌 Band 7-8 Vocabulary:
– colloquial — used in ordinary conversation, not formal speech or writing
– deliberately — consciously and intentionally
– threshold — the point at which something begins or changes
– contractions — shortened forms of words or groups of words
– informal speech — language used in casual, everyday conversation

IELTS Speaking Part 3: Language Learning Questions and Model Answers

Question 1: What difficulties do people face when learning a language?

Model Answer:
The most universal difficulty is the gap between understanding and production. Most learners reach a point where they can comprehend a language reasonably well before they can speak it fluently, and crossing that gap requires a willingness to make mistakes publicly that many people find genuinely difficult. The second most common difficulty is motivation over the long term. The early stages of language learning produce rapid visible progress, which is motivating. The intermediate plateau, where improvement becomes slower and harder to measure, is where most learners stop. In the UK and US, research on adult language learning consistently identifies motivation maintenance rather than aptitude as the primary predictor of whether someone reaches fluency.

Question 2: Do you think language learning is important?

Model Answer:
Increasingly so, and not only for practical reasons. The cognitive benefits of bilingualism are well documented. Research from the University of Edinburgh found that bilingual people show symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease on average four to five years later than monolingual people with equivalent education and socioeconomic backgrounds. Beyond the individual benefits, language learning produces a qualitatively different kind of cultural understanding than any other approach. You do not fully understand a culture until you can access it in its own language. Translation creates an approximation. The original creates something closer to direct contact.

Question 3: Which is better, studying a language alone or in a group?

Model Answer:
Both have specific advantages that make them complementary rather than competing. Solo study is better for building the grammatical foundation and vocabulary that structured learning produces efficiently. Group study, or more accurately real conversational practice with other speakers, is what converts that foundation into functional fluency. The research on this is fairly consistent. Stephen Krashen’s input hypothesis, one of the most cited frameworks in second language acquisition, distinguishes between the formal learning that solo study produces and the acquisition that comes from comprehensible input in social settings. Both are necessary. Neither alone is sufficient.

Question 4: What is the best way to learn a language?

Model Answer:
Immersion in a context where the language is genuinely necessary for daily functioning is the fastest method identified in the research. Living in a country where the language is spoken creates the conditions for rapid acquisition that no classroom programme has successfully replicated. For people who cannot access full immersion, the closest equivalent is artificial immersion through media consumption in the target language, deliberate conversation practice with native speakers, and reducing the use of translation as a crutch as quickly as possible. Duolingo and similar apps are useful for establishing early vocabulary but the research on their effectiveness at producing functional fluency is considerably weaker than their marketing suggests.

Examiner Tips for IELTS Speaking Part 2 Language Learning

Tip 1: Name the specific show or method you used.
Friends is a specific, real, recognisable choice. The specificity is what makes the answer credible.

Tip 2: Describe the process including the difficulty.
The discomfort and the temptation to quit make this answer feel genuine. A method that is described as easy and straightforward does not sound real.

Tip 3: For Part 3, use real research.
Stephen Krashen, the University of Edinburgh Alzheimer’s research, Duolingo effectiveness data. Named sources immediately elevate Part 3 answers.

Common Mistakes on This Topic

Describing a method without explaining how it actually helped
Giving a Part 2 answer that is a general description of studying rather than a specific activity
Part 3 answers that give only personal opinion with no external reference
Opening with “I would like to talk about something I did to learn English…”

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a confirmed IELTS Speaking Part 2 topic for 2026?
Yes. Something You Did to Learn Another Language appears in the official IELTS Speaking question bank for May–August 2026 as a new topic.

Does it have to be English I describe learning?
No. Any language you have studied or are studying is valid. But English is the most natural choice given the exam context and the fact that the candidate is already doing it.

What if my method was just attending school classes?
Describe it specifically. What happened in those classes that helped. One particular teacher, one particular exercise, one moment when something clicked. Specificity is always more impressive than a general description.