The relationship of pre-service teachers’ beliefs and practice of first language usage in Hong Kong English lessons

First language usage in English lessons has been a controversial issue for decades. This paper identifies the pre-service teachers’ beliefs and actual L1 use, as well as makes comparison of them. A group of 38 pre-service English teachers were studied through self-report of their language use in teaching practice. Source of information included questionnaires and interviews. The results found that ‘English-mainly’ approach was preferred and students’ English proficiency was the key factor influencing teachers’ language choice. Besides, dealing with discipline problems and building rapport with students are the two main aspects for L1 use. For the comparison, it is found that most of the participants’ actual language use matched their beliefs.