Conceptual Fluency and Metaphorical Competence in Second Language Acquisition: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

While most studies in second language acquisition (sla) have focused on the initial state, stages in sla, and rate of acquisition, and in general on linguistic or communicative competence, few have as yet addressed the question of metaphorical competence. the problem seems to be rooted in the fact that the end results which have been the concern of most sla studies have dealt with as non-native-like outcomes in sla. nonnative-like outcomes have been examined in the context of ug, where metaphorical language receives less attention. that is, ultimate attainment data are mostly taken as useful when investigating other linguistically-motivated distinctions. the present paper examines ultimate attainment of adult persianspeakerslearning english as a second language in terms of their conceptual fluency which is supposed to account for their metaphorical competence. data collected was analyzed with respect to the amount of figurative language produced by advanced learners of english in different tasks. the analysis showed that natives and non-natives differed drastically in both type and amount of figurative language they employed in conveying similar concepts. the results confirmed the hypothesis that l2 learners need to be exposed to metaphorical language in the l2 in order to become conceptually fluent.