ELF and creativity: idioms and metaphors as language boosters

One of the "living routes" we might wish to track down in our didactic research and pedagogical action is language creativity. If we set this path within an ELF users' perspective, we will note that one extremely profitable ground of investigation is the use of idioms and metaphors. Drawing on previous contributions in these two specific categories and discourses, we suggest observing the phenomena as realised in local academic settings. This paper reports on the preliminary results of a tailor-made questionnaire distributed to a group of students, attending the Asian studies curriculum at Sapienza University, ROme. Specific questions were asked regarding their view and use of idioms and metaphors in English written texts or conversational exchanges via social networks with their peers-living either in European or Asian countries. Results showed, so far, that even when grammar competence and correctness fail, effective communication and language creativity may take place, with newly forged examples of idiomatic expressions of figurative language.