ABSTRACT
As all of the chapters in this volume make clear, metaphor is far from an unimportant aspect of human communication, or the product of extraordinary people who possess a special ‘way with words’, such as poets, novelists or great orators. Rather, it is used – to a greater or lesser extent – by all humans to express themselves when talking about topics ranging from their feelings (emotions such as anger or sadness) to the football match they are watching on TV. And since it is such an important part of everyday language use, one would expect that attention to metaphor would be an integral part of every language course designed for learners of a second or foreign language (S/FL). However, the simple truth is that it seldom, if ever, is. One of the main objectives of this chapter is to explore why this might be so.
