Gimenez and her colleagues (2011) examined nine Brazilian university students’ views on a course they enrolled in, which was a 30-hour advanced level course dealing with issues like globalisation, identity, diversity, and poverty. To understand the students’ attitudes towards these topics, the teacher-researchers asked them to write a reflective diary, fill in a self-evaluation form and finally, they had a full class discussion evaluating the course. Apart from some negative comments from the beginning of the course, the reported attitudes were mainly positive. In the beginning, some students expressed negativity because they “felt threatened” (p. 55) by the group and they felt “forced to take a stand” and “express a point of view [they were] not ready to express” (p. 55). However, most of the comments were positive and the students voiced that the course had contributed to their linguistic and personal development as well. They appreciated the fact that the focus of the course was not on dealing with distinctive grammar points, but on discussing complex real-life issues. Students also reported that they learned “to respect other people’s points of view” (p. 57), learned to value diversity (p. 57), managed to “[get] rid of preconceived ideas” (p. 57), developed their analytical skills and they became motivated to read more about the issues presented in class.

In Argentina, Hillyard (2008) examined students’ attitudes to a similar course to the previous one. It was a post-proficiency course for undergraduates in a private Argentine institution, centred around collaborative tasks dealing with several global issues, i.e., discrimination, stereotypes, racism, human rights, globalisation, the impact of the media, poverty, and sustainability. By interviewing the five participating students, she found that the students had mainly positive attitudes towards the course as they felt that it had improved “their development processes not only as language learners but also as positive young people who wanted to contribute to a better world” (p. 13). They also reported that the course raised their awareness of “their responsibilities as citizens” (p. 13), they started to watch the news to become more up to date about current events and they learned more about the presented issues.

Tarasheva (2008) carried out research in a Bulgarian state university in a B2+ level course as she wanted to see whether integrating citizenship education into an EFL course can increase student motivation and improve their language proficiency. In the course, the students had to analyse media texts and talk about current controversial issues. From a language learning point of view, the course was evaluated as very successful. The students found all the course components profitable, and they expressed great satisfaction with the fact that the topics related to real-life events. They also learned how to “deal with conflicts in non-violent ways” (p. 11), about the ways people and events are represented in a media in different manners and they learned about different social roles, which may have contributed to their becoming better citizens.

Bayraktar Balkir’s (2021) interview study investigated Turkish students’ perceptions of incorporating global issues into a course in a university preparatory-year programme. The participants had generally positive attitudes towards the course in which they dealt with issues of global significance, and they acknowledged that it contributed to broadening their horizons and increasing their cross-cultural awareness and understanding while also developing their overall language proficiency. The students in the study found that their teachers had sufficient knowledge about these topics, however, they expressed their concerns about the fact that their teachers did “not feel free to express their opinions” (p. 125). All in all, the students were satisfied with the course and even suggested further global topics they would like to deal with, such as gender equality, homophobia, and education systems in different countries.

Turkish students’ attitudes and reactions towards the class discussion of two taboo topics (homosexuality and adultery) in Turkish society were examined by Tekin (2011). He surveyed 121 students, taking part in an English language teacher preparatory programme, with two questionnaires, asking about their general attitude towards the two chosen issues and their opinion about the in-class discussion of these topics. What he found was that two-thirds of the students did not have a negative opinion towards the discussion of these presumably unspeakable topics. Quite the opposite, the participating students welcomed the inclusion of these hot topics, they claimed that they were interested in them, and they would also like to have such issues in their coursebooks.

Other researchers were also interested in students’ attitudes towards the discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in class. Nelson (2015) conducted semi-structured interviews with nine adult ESL learners, all international students studying in Australia, to understand their views on LGBTQ+ content in their lessons. Some of the students reported that these issues raised their interest, stimulated their “intellectual curiosity” (p. 8) and they appreciated that they learned about something they did not know too much about beforehand. Several students claimed that learning about LGBTQ+ matters had led them to more meaningful and engaging conversations in the target language not only in class but also outside, in the real world. They also realised that to address this issue properly, they needed to learn to use “respectful and non-discriminatory language” p. 9), which, consequently, had an impact on their language learning.

The students participating in the above-listed studies expressed mainly positive views on the incorporation of controversial issues in their EFL lessons. Moreover, they also disclosed in what ways the in-class treatment of such issues contributed to their development (as global citizens). Several students mentioned how they developed their knowledge and understanding of the issues, they became knowledgeable about previously not mentioned topics and they even wanted to learn more about them (Bayraktar Balkir, 2021; Gimenez & al., 2011; Hillyard, 2008; Nelson, 2015; Tekin, 2011). The students and their teachers also pointed out that by discussing controversial issues, the students effectively developed their skills, mostly their critical thinking skills (Hillyard et al., 2008; Tarasheva, 2008), their argumentation (Hillyard, 2008), their respect for others (Hillyard, 2008; Nelson, 2015), and their ability to cooperate with others (Hillyard, 2008; Tarasheva, 2008). Finally, students also realised that they developed their values and attitudes; they cultivated their sense of identity (Hillyard, 2008; Tarasheva, 2008), became more committed to social justice (Nelson, 2015), learned to value and respect diversity (Gimenez et al., 2011; Nelson, 2015) and they started to believe that they can contribute to a better world (Hillyard, 2008). As it can be seen from these examples, not only do the students welcome the discussion of controversial global content in their EFL lessons, but they also realise its educational potentials and they feel that they get something more (i.e., skills and attitudes) from these discussions than from a simple language lesson.

As it became apparent from the previous section (2.2.1), teachers tend to have mixed feelings when it comes to choosing potentially risky controversial content for in-class discussions. Although some teachers seem to be enthusiastic about treating these topics in class (Divéki, 2018; Evripidou & Çavuşoglu, 2014; Gürsoy & Saglam, 2011; Yakovchuk, 2004), others voice their fears and seem to have negative attitudes towards controversial issues, which often results in avoiding them in class (Macfarlane, 2015; Yoshihara, 2013). Many students from the above-presented studies, however, give the impression of viewing these complex real-life topics more positively. As students appear to be open and welcoming of the discussion of controversial issues and the pedagogical affordances of their inclusion have also been emphasised and promoted, some questions arise: Why do teachers, the educational gatekeepers who decide on the course content, fear the discussion of controversial topics in the EFL class? How often do the teachers’ negative attitudes towards the discussion of certain topics contribute to their omission from the course? How could they overcome these fears to provide their students with more learning opportunities?

There are two conclusions to be drawn from the apparent student-teacher disconnect on this matter. First, teachers might feel a bit more confident about the inclusion of sensitive material, were they to know that students do like dealing with controversial issues in class. Familiarizing them with the results of the presented studies could be the first step, but alternatively, it may be beneficial to do some research in different contexts as well, to get a more detailed picture of students’ attitudes. Second, asking students whether they are interested in certain controversial issues and dealing only with those issues in class might also be a reasonable idea. As Cates (2002) points out, teachers can rise to this challenge by creating student-centred classes, where student interest is taken into consideration, students are active participants in their learning and teachers only act as facilitators.