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esearcher made analyses of descriptivestatistics, one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation to answer the three research questions.The procedures of data analysis were illustrated in details and the results are reported asfollows.The first research question is intended to investigate Chinese non-English majors’ levelsof metaphoric competence. To work out this question, descriptive statistics and one-wayANOVA were employed.In order to explore Chinese non-English majors levels of MC, descriptive statistics wasfirst used to examine Chinese non-English majors’ overall MC and three aspects of MC, aspresented in Table 5.1.As presented in Table 5.1, the total mark for the overall MC is 300 and the full scores foreach aspect of MC are 100 points. Non-English majors’ MC is up to standards if the meanscore for overall MC reaches 180 points. Table 5.1 demonstrates that the mean score fornon-English majors’ overall MC is 117.599, which is lower than 180 points. In other words,non-English majors’ MC is at a lower level. As for the three aspects of MC, the mean scorefor ability to find meaning of metaphor (66.16) is the highest among the three aspects of MCand the mean score for fluency of metaphor interpretation (25.14) is the lowest. That is, themeans for the three aspects of MC trend downwards from ability to find meaning of metaphorto fluency of metaphor interpretation. Substantially, non-English majors are relatively capableof finding meaning in metaphor but they fail to acquire two abilities: one is originality ofmetaphor production (26.297<60), which is the ability to come up with their ownunconventional metaphors; and the other is fluency of metaphor interpretation (25.14<60),which is the ability to think up more than one possible meaning for a single given metaphor.

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Conclusion

The current study is intended to examine the current situations of Chinese non-Englishmajors’ MC and creativity. In addition, the relationship between MC and creativity and therelationship is also investigated. The major findings can be summarized as followings.Firstly, Chinese non-English majors’ MC is at a low level. In respect of non-Englishmajors from the three groups, it is found that there appears significant difference in overallMC on the grounds of different language proficiency. The higher students’ language level is,the higher MC is, and vice versa. As for the three aspects of MC, the means for non-Englishmajors’ MC trend downwards from ability to find meaning of metaphor to fluency ofmetaphor interpretation. Substantially, non-English majors are relatively capable of findingmeaning in metaphor, but there is a significant difference between Class A and Class C inability to find meaning in metaphor. It is shown that language levels have an effect on abilityto find meaning of metaphor. In addition, they fail to acquire abilities of originality ofmetaphor production and fluency of metaphor interpretation. Non-English majors are verypoor at fluency of metaphor interpretation. There is no significant difference in fluency ofmetaphor interpretation among three classes. Non-English majors are also weak in originalityof metaphor production. Compared with originality of metaphor production in Class A andClass B, Class C perform prominently in originality of metaphor production. No significantdifferences occur in originality of metaphor production between Class A and Class C.Considering the above, teac