This study explores the "language repair strategies" (aimed at repairing communication problems) of two bilingual speakers during mathematics word problem tutoring sessions. Bilingual repair was shown to gradually shift from a linguistic to an epistemic focus during problem solving (i.e., communication became more conceptually focused over time). Linguistic repair involved varied translation techniques (literal and free), whereas epistemic repair entailed gradual refinement of specialized mathematical meanings through intralinguistic communicative strategies such as simplified rewording. It is suggested that understanding language repair may help tutors develop more effective dialogic instructional approaches to the teaching of mathematical word problems to English learners.