Controversial English grounds (7)
I believe the answer is:
emotive
'controversial' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'english grounds' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'grounds' becomes 'motive' (I've seen this in other clues).
'e'+'motive'='EMOTIVE'
(Other definitions for emotive that I've seen before include "Tending to arouse feelings" , "Move tie (anag)" , "exciting" , "Sensitive - controversial" , "Showing feelings" .)