“Fingers which mean นิ้ว นิ้วแบบนิ้วมือ”

This article explores pre-service teachers’ L1 use in Thai Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) secondary classrooms through the translanguaging frame, which emphasises the use of the whole linguistic and semiotic repertoire in the classroom to make meaning and construct new knowledge. Teachers may choose to make deliberate use of learners’ linguistic repertoires in classroom activities to enhance understanding and develop learners’ communicative abilities beyond narrowly defined language codes. We investigate how pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers employed a translanguaging approach to model tasks and provide definitions of key terms. We explore the teachers’ beliefs concerning L1 use, drawing attention to the apparent tension between teachers’ practices and beliefs. The findings indicate that the teachers utilised translanguaging in different modes, including modeling tasks and translating L2 terms, to address students’ comprehension problems. However, the teachers expressed mixed beliefs concerning how and when L1 should be used.