How would you help someone with limited English abilities score 5 in the IELTS?

IELTS is something more than just a language test. Even an applicant with good skills of English language can't acquire his desired score unless he goes through the time management and pattern tricks of IELTS. 

For an applicant with limited English language skills:

1-  more practice in four basic skills; reading, writing, speaking and listening is important.

2-  Still it's not enough and a practice of time management tricks along with thorough awareness of pattern of the test is also essential.

3- The applicant should make realize that if his required band score is 5, he has to practice for 7, then he'll get 5. Being content on 5 is no wise and he'll waste his effort and fee.

First of all 5 is a low IELTS score to compete anywhere in the world since most of the work places require minimum 6, and educational institutions require 7, so for a person with limited English abilities 5 is not difficult to achieve. But, for further improvement, training in all the four skills reading, writing, speaking and listening is required. 

Last week my student passed IELTS and got 5.5  - and her ability was not at all the best, but she worked hard and regularly, and she did a tremendous progress

The secret is that there is no secret - you have to buy IELTS books and do them task after task 

Please go to this site and other free sites and practise well for atleast 6 months before taking the test :

http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-test/free-practice-tests

agree with all expert answers above

This question is a large scope type of inquiry. However, IELTS is based on two skills:

1. Academic skills

2. English skills

The candidate should develop the skill of skimming and scanning to surpass the reading passages. Moreover, when you are asked to write a persuasive essay, you should think of the three persuasive appeals to convince the examiners of the candidate's argument. When you are asked to analyze data shown on a graph, you should be precise and concise. Of course, academic vocabulary must be used. Transitory words as well. The candidate should write a draft and revise the work before submission. Listening is a bit confusing but the most important tool is to keep track on what is important to listen to and what you should discard. Speaking is easy since topics are of general interest. However, books like Barron's can help the candidate walk through the process smoothly. .

If a person has little ability of English then he needs a careful inclination. He should go for an ELT teacher so that the student can be made practice, for example, he can be provided with sufficient material and input by following communicative approach of teaching. As the student has no much knowledge of English language. He can be judged according to his existing and the required knowledge. For example, a student of little knowledge of English language may need:

• English tenses but with special reference towards its uses; and strategy of teaching should be communicative and activities based. (in our area I train even weaker students; they don't even differentiate between little things of grammar)
• Basic understanding of Active voice and passive voice with special reference to the explanation of scientific articles or instructions.
• Try to minimize the irrelevant use of grammatical terminology, especially, parts of speech.
• Students should be given the task 50 new verbs and its forms daily; and this should be continued for at least 6 days.
• Then he should be provided with the concept of: introduction, body and conclusion; that is, how can we develop our ideas by applying these three things? and this concepts should be followed in, especially, writing and speaking.
• And in the final, think, sleep and walk in English...

He should attend classes that will prepare him for the IELTS. 

Classes should be at IELTS centers for a better improvement and great results. 

I think the first step is to encourage him or her to work hard with the language so as to improve the capabilities. Then, some one can score the level he/she wants. I believe the issue is related to understanding the language more than scoring 5 marks in IELTS.   

Thanks for the invite I leave the answer to the experts, specialists in this field