This study explored the impact of multilingual practices in an IELTS (International English Language Testing System) preparation course, focusing on how these practices shape students' learning strategies and performance. IELTS candidates in most ESL/EFL contexts often bring diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds to the preparation class. Despite this diversity, there is little research on how these multilingual practices can be leveraged to enhance students' performance on the test. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combined semi-structured interviews with multilingual students and quantitative analysis of their test results. Findings indicated that multilingual students employed techniques such as code-switching, translation, and linguistic knowledge transfer to address challenges and meet academic language demands. The study identified both benefits and challenges of multilingualism in IELTS preparation courses. Benefits included enhanced problem-solving and comprehension strategies, while challenges involved language interference and the tendency to prioritize one language over others.

Keywords: Multilingualism, IELTS, language learning, test preparation, language transfer, pedagogy.