This article is derived from a small study conducted within a larger qualitative study into the nature of the responses of mainstream primary teachers in a non-metropolitan area in Australia to the Sudanese refugee English Language Learners (ELLs) in their classes. It reports on findings in relation to teachers' attitudes toward the use of their ELLs' first language (L1) in their classrooms. The study found that teachers saw either no role, or an "instrumental" role (Creese & Leung, 2003; Leung, 2005) only, for the L1 in their classrooms. None of the teachers articulated conceptualisations of the L1 as an academic resource which can be harnessed to open up curricular access for ELLs. These findings are considered through the lens of the Bourdieusian framework in which the study was carried out, utilising the concept of monolingual monocultural habitus developed by Gogolin (2002). Suggestions are then made for teacher professional learning. (Contains 1 figure.)