Research has shown that metaphor is ubiquitous in English and that knowing and being able to use metaphor relates to higher language proficiency. Meanwhile, learners face challenges in metaphor reception and production. The first step to address these challenges would be measuring to what extent the students can recognise metaphor and are aware of the different dimensions of metaphor. However, instruments for measuring metaphor awareness developed in relevant research did not seem to have been checked for quality, and the functions of metaphor in discourse as an important component of metaphor awareness were neglected. This study thus aimed to develop three instruments for measuring awareness of linguistic forms of metaphor (e.g. flow of information, feeling down), metaphorical concepts commonly used in English and connections between literal and figurative meaning (e.g. spending time is like spending money because time is as precious as money), and communicative functions of metaphor (e.g. to explain abstract concepts). The instruments were administered to 293 Chinese undergraduate English majors at intermediate to advanced English proficiency levels and demonstrated good validity and reliability. The participants had difficulty recognising metaphorical prepositions (e.g. in a bad mood), adverb (waited long), and adjectives (e.g. low credit scores) as metaphorical and establishing connections between the basic meaning and the figurative meaning of conventional metaphors in thought. These could be the areas that language teachers need to focus on in teaching metaphor.