While studies on metaphor in second or foreign language teaching and learning have been popular, little progress has been made in studies on metonymy in the second or foreign language despite the fact that metonymy is one of the basic cognitive processes and metonymic expressions are just as frequently used in daily life as metaphors. This paper presents an overview of research on metaphor and metonymy in foreign language learning and discusses the aspects of metonymy comprehension by learners of English whose first language is Japanese with reference to the research of Arizono (2016, 2019, 2020). The results of analysis suggest that intervention by a teacher and cooperation with other learners are required for learners to take full advantage of strategies for successful metonymy comprehension.
