Medical students' attention in EFL class: Roles of academic expectation stress and quality of sleep

This study proposed and tested a conceptual model of academic expectation stress, sleep quality, and attention in EFL class. These variables did not receive much attention in previous studies but are considered important to medical students' attention in EFL class. Data were collected from 496 medical students from a medical university in Taiwan. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique was used to examine the path effect in the research model. The results found that (1) higher academic expectation stress leads to higher attention in EFL class; (2) higher academic stress causes poorer sleep quality; (3) poorer sleep quality leads to lower attention in EFL class. A mediator was also identified in this model: sleep quality was found to partially mediate the relationship between academic expectation stress and attention in EFL class. The results may advance the current literature in medical education and applied linguistics by moving a step closer to understand these three variables.