The article described a study to understand a teacher's usage of first language (L1) in rural Sabah, Malaysia. Literature findings discovered a growing understanding that L1 should be used to assist a learner in learning L2 and that despite some studies done in Malaysian schools, none are based on English Language classrooms in rural Sabah, East Malaysia. Approximately 400 minutes of the teacher's classroom sessions were recorded, and any use of L1 is coded, and then categorised, based on the coding system developed by Sali (2014). The codes revealed that L1 is primarily used for academic and managerial purposes, with more efforts made on giving instructions, talking about learning, and eliciting objectives in mind. There was also the use of languages other than L1, primarily the students' ethnic tongue. Findings were compared against Principled Use of L1 (Cook, 2001), and suggestions were made to assist and further enhance the L1 use of the teacher, keeping in mind the contextual uniqueness of rural Sabah, Malaysia. A larger-scale study could be replicated to confirm the findings further, and to develop a principled use of L1 for rural Sabah ESL/EFL teachers to follow.

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This article describes a study to understand teachers’ experience in implementing the CEFR-Aligned Standards-Based English Language Curriculum (SBELC) in rural Sabah, Malaysia. The literature review revealed many cases where curriculum reform was not implemented as intended due to factors such as inappropriate training structures and inadequate training, understanding, and resources. Compared to other regions in Malaysia, rural Sabah schools may face a more acute situation due to teachers’ lack of experience and resource shortages for the implementation of training and teaching. In this study, the researchers interviewed six teachers, with two of them also serving as trainers of the new curriculum. Transcripts were analysed using deductive thematic analysis. The codes revealed that teachers in general had a positive training experience that was reflective, open to reinterpretation, and with a degree of decentralisation of expertise. There were also issues where quality of training deteriorated as the levels progressed, due to lack of resources allocated. This article offers some suggestions to enhance rural Sabah teachers’ training experience. A quantitative study of a larger scale should be done to further confirm the findings of this study.