The study of metaphor has lasted for more than two thousand years. Traditional study of metaphor is part of poetics and rhetoric. Metaphor studies have broken the area of rhetoric, and metaphor is considered the basic pattern of human cognition nowadays. If the cognitive significance of metaphorical theory is explored in linguistic teaching, it will revitalize the teaching in culture, vocabulary, discourse and so on. It will be an efficient approach to promote foreign language teaching by fostering learners＇ metaphorical competence.