Task 2 · Cross-cutting skill

Academic vocabulary, organised by the job each word does

Every vocabulary book for this exam is organised by topic — health, education, the environment. That helps you read. It does not help you write, because in front of a prompt nobody asks “which transport words do I know?”. They ask “how do I say this usually happens, but not always?”. That is a function, and these are the eight that build a Task 2 response.

8 functionsone page each, with its own exercises

48 itemseach with the pattern it demands

32 exercisesplus a twelve-question mixed engine

No auto-bandevery wrong option explains itself

Official criteria and WeLearn strategy

Lexical Resource is not a count of long words

Official format versus WeLearn strategy

Official format: Lexical Resource is one of the four official criteria for Task 2. It assesses range, precision and control — including collocation and word formation — not the number of unusual words a response contains.

WeLearn strategy: WeLearn teaches vocabulary by function, because a topic list cannot tell you which word a sentence needs. Each function opens with the same sentence written vaguely and precisely, so the gain is visible before any list appears.

Answer review

Review focus: Choose the word that adds information, then check it takes the pattern you gave it.

Explained answer: A strong response uses a precise word because the sentence needed one. Swapping in a rare synonym that does not fit its pattern lowers this criterion rather than raising it. Nothing here is scored automatically.

IELTS Academic source IELTS samples Writing rubric Task 2 hub Model answers Compare General Training

Start here

The eight functions

Each page opens with the same sentence written vaguely and precisely, then asks you to spot which version does the job, then gives you the items with the pattern each one demands, two worked examples, the mistakes it produces, and three exercises.

Hedging · Matizar una afirmación

It lowers the temperature of a claim, so you only have to defend what you actually said.

6 items · 2 worked examples · 3 exercises Asserting · Afirmar con fuerza

It raises the temperature of a claim, so the reader knows which points you are prepared to stand behind.

6 items · 2 worked examples · 3 exercises Attributing · Atribuir una idea a alguien

It makes clear whose claim each sentence is — yours, the prompt’s, or somebody else’s.

6 items · 2 worked examples · 3 exercises Quantifying · Cuantificar sin datos

It says how many or how much, at a level of precision you can actually defend.

6 items · 2 worked examples · 3 exercises Causing · Causa y consecuencia

It names which way the arrow points between two things.

6 items · 2 worked examples · 3 exercises Evaluating · Valorar y juzgar

It says whether something is good or bad, and in what specific respect.

6 items · 2 worked examples · 3 exercises Proposing · Proponer soluciones

It names what should be done, precisely enough that a reader could picture it happening.

6 items · 2 worked examples · 3 exercises Register · Mantener el registro académico

It keeps every sentence at the formality the task expects.

6 items · 2 worked examples · 3 exercises

The one rule

A rare word in the wrong pattern costs more than a plain word in the right one

This is where most vocabulary work goes wrong.
“Detrimental for” instead of “detrimental to”. “Subsidise to families”. “Tend to investing”. “Research have proven”. Every one of those is a word somebody learned and then used without its pattern — and every one reads worse than the plain word it replaced. That is why each of the 48 items on these pages carries the construction it demands, and why 16 real errors are printed with their diagnosis instead of being tidied away.

WeLearn progressive engine

Practise all eight functions together

None of these sentences appears in the eight lessons, so no example above gives one away. Name the function first, then choose the precise version, then diagnose a word that is doing more work than the evidence allows — which is the skill you need when you reread your own draft.

Level 1 · Name the function · Exercise 1 of 4

Rural populations tend to have poorer access to specialist healthcare.

What job is “tend to” doing in this sentence?

Choose an option first

Where you will use this

These words are the argument, not the decoration

Linking language

The ninth function — connecting ideas — has seven families and a page each. It is not repeated here.

Paraphrasing

Restating the prompt needs precise synonyms. These eight functions are where they come from.

Body paragraphs

Hedging, causing and quantifying do most of their work here, inside the chain of reasoning.