"Teacher talk", which remains a primary feature of much education, plays a crucial role in EFL contexts where exposure to the L2 is often confined to the language classroom, and where local teachers generally share L1 with their students. The present study explores fresh ways of describing the major pedagogic functions of teacher talk across both L1 and L2 in such environments. It seeks to establish broad descriptive categories which can be directly applied by teachers and teacher-educators to the analysis of bilingual classroom practices. (Contains 10 tables.)