Peer response is a method which is widely used on higher levels of second-language learning in Sweden, such as universities. The approach is not used as much in upper secondary school; and, the aim of this paper is to investigate upper secondary students' opinions of the value of peer response. The aim is also to investigate if the teacher's grading differed between the first version of a text and the final vesrion that had been revised after peer response. Research has shown that there seems to be more negotiation of meaning when students are working collaboratively and this can lead to better revisions of written texts, especially in terms of content development. On the other hand, collaborative writing can also create anxiety in some students who therefore dislike peer response. This investigation has shown that students taking part in the investigation are generally positive towards the approach. They also believe that giving and receiving feedback can help them improve their writing. There are, however, a few students who dislike it and want the texts to be read only by the teacher. The investigation has also shown that students mainly focus on formal aspects such as spelling and grammar when giving feedback to each other, whereas content was rarely commented on. Moreover, the results have shown that many of the students' grades improved on the final version compared to the first version. In conclusion, this investigation indicates that peer response could be used as an alternative, or complement, to ordinary teacher-student feedback in upper secondary school.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka hur några lärare i årskurs 1-6 arbetar med kamratrespons vid bedömning av elevtexter i ämnet svenska. Ytterligare ett syfte med examensarbetet är att få kunskap om vilka möjligheter och svårigheter det finns med arbetssättet kamratrespons samt att ta reda på hur de intervjuade lärarna tror att eleverna upplever kamratrespons. Utgångspunkten är Vygotskijs teori om sociolkulturellt lärande i socialt samspel. I studien har semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer med fem lärare från tre olika skolor använts. Lärarnas beskrivningar av arbetssättet överensstämmer med vad som framkommer i litteraturen. Framför allt används kamratrespons i svenskans skriva-delar. Den vanligaste metoden är Två stjärnor och en önskan. De möjligheter och svårigheter som lärarna lyfter stämmer i stort sett överens med vad som framkommer i litteraturen. Av intervjuerna framgår att ett positivt klassrumsklimat är det viktigaste för att kamratrespons ska fungera. Av studien framgår att det finns en skillnad mellan lärarnas tankar och det som framkommer av litteraturen. De intervjuade lärarna framför att det är svårt att hitta fungerande responspar, vilket inte framgår av litteraturen. Den lyfter endast att det är bra att byta responspar ofta. / The purpose of the thesis is to investigate how some teachers in grades 1-6 work with peer responses when assessing student texts in the subject Swedish. Another purpose of the thesis is to gain knowledge about the possibilities and difficulties with the peer response method and to find out how the interviewed teachers believe that the students experience peer response. The starting point is Vygotsky's theory of social-cultural learning in social interaction. The study has used semi-structured qualitative interviews with five teachers from three different schools. Teachers' practice coincides with examples in the literature on how the work method can be used. Most importantly, peer response is used in Swedish writing. The most common method is two stars and a wish. The opportunities and difficulties that the teachers raise are broadly in line with what appears in the literature. What appeared in the interviews as the most important thing to make the peer response work was a positive climate in the group. The study finds a difference between the thoughts of the interviewed teachers and what appears in the literature. The interviewed teachers express that it is difficult to find effective response pairs. What emerged in the literature was instead that it is good to change response pairs often.

This licentiate thesis investigates fiction writing and reading in up- per secondary school in Sweden. Inspired by fanfiction I created a teaching project of derivative writing in which the students in a se- cond-year social science class wrote short stories derived from 20th century novels. They also gave peer response, both orally and in writing. Finally they wrote a reflective text about the project. The main purpose of the study is to describe and analyse the teaching project. The primary material is the students’ short sto- ries. Drawing from theories of intertextuality, most notably Genette’s transtextuality theory and fanfiction theories, I analyse how the students make use of the source text. Theories of narratology have been used to analyse techniques of storytelling, mainly characterization and focalization. In the analysis of the stu- dents’ written comments on each other’s texts I draw from re- sponse theories. The results show that the students tend to stay close to the source texts. The most common subgenre is refocalization, that is to change the perspective to one of the secondary characters’ view. Refocalization seems to be an efficient way of deepening the under- standing of the main character of the source text; in many of the students’ stories the protagonist functions as the focalized object. Which novel the students read plays an important part in how fo- calization is expressed, however. Short stories based on novels with complex focalization tend to be focalized in a variety of ways whereas stories based on novels with fixed focalization mostly fol- low the pattern of the source text. Reading the short stories and, not least, the reflective texts it becomes evident that the characters  are extremely important in this kind of literature, more so than semiotic theories of characters have acknowledged; the characters are more than merely functions. In the chapter about peer response I argue that many students write analyses of the text they are about to respond to rather than give advice about how to proceed. It is difficult to see if the response is of any help to the writer. Thus, I question whether peer response has any other effect than strength- ening the social bonds between the group members. The study shows that creative writing could very well be an in- tegral part of the education in Swedish in upper secondary school. Derivative writing may function as an alternative to traditional lit- erary analyses. Refocalizing is a way of seeing the story from a dif- ferent viewpoint, which could enhance the students’ sense of empa- thy. Questions of focalization might also lead to discussions of power. Furthermore, creative writing may make the students more attentive as writers. In the new syllabus Gy 11, however, the op- portunities for working with creative writing are, unfortunately, limited.

This study examines how adult second language learners in the context of a writing pedagogical intervention give and receive feedback and how they talk about argumentative texts. The study highlights students' work with peer response and the questions that can arise when students need to relate to instructions, model texts, and feedback that can provide inconsistent information about the text's desired design. The design of this study has taken inspiration from genre theory and formative assessment, emphasizing the role of an explicit writing pedagogy. The results show the importance of teacher guided practice and teaching metafunctional linguistic resources in order to improve students´ writing. Furthermore the results indicate the role of function in writing instruction. Second language writers, as well as any student concerned with writing, need to understand how different linguistic choices affect the content and the readers´ perception of the text.

Peer response is used in classrooms around the world to involve pupils in the assessment methods. The intention is to examine the effects of the methods and tools teachers use in peer response by answering following questions: What methods do teachers use in peer response? How can teaching methods affect students ability to give and receive feedback on texts? To answer the questions and the purpose of the study systematic searches about methods in peer response and feedback were made for previous research in the form of articles, academic journals and books. This literature review includes an analysis of the findings in both international and Swedish research studies as well as a discussion about the methods used by the teachers and students in the studies. The findings show that teachers use different methods and tools to help pupils during peer response, for example checklists and example texts. Teachers are generally positive towards using peer response but not without worrying about elements such as social relationships. The most occurring finding is that pupils need time to practice giving and receiving peer response to elaborate the quality of their feedback. The conclusion based on the findings in this literature review is that the teachers' methods work as scaffolding in the process of using peer response, but we also identify the need for more studies, especially in a Swedish context. / Syftet med denna kunskapsöversikt är att undersöka vilka metoder lärare använder vid arbete med kamratrespons i svenskämnet samt vilka effekter dessa får på elevernas förmåga att ge och ta emot återkoppling genom att besvara följande frågeställningar: Vilka undervisningsmetoder använder lärare vid kamratrespons? Hur kan lärares undervisningsmetoder påverka elevers förmåga att ge och ta emot respons på texter?  Arbetet grundar sig i det centrala innehållet för svenska i årskurs 4-9 där det står att elever ska få öva på förmågan att ge och ta emot respons på texter samt ett eget genuint intresse för kamratrespons från vår sida. För att besvara frågeställningarna och studiens syfte har vi gjort systematiska sökningar efter tidigare forskningar i form av artiklar och avhandlingar om formativ bedömning, kamratrespons och lärares metoder. Vi har avgränsat sökningarna efter studier så att de ska vara relevanta utifrån vårt ämnesdidaktiska fokus samt ålder på eleverna, där studier som behandlar kamratrespons given på texter inkluderas samt att åldrarna på de involverade eleverna motsvarar elever i åldrarna för svenska grundskolans årskurs 4-9. Resultatet vi har tagit fram från vår studie visar att lärare använder sig av verktyg såsom checklistor, exempeltexter och matriser vid kamratrespons och implementerar dessa på olika sätt. Vidare visade kvantitativa studier att lärares attityd gentemot kamratrespons generellt är positiv, dock inte utan oro för faktorer som påverkar, exempelvis sociala relationer och klassrumsklimat. Ett sådant genomgående moment är missförstånd mellan lärares intentioner av vald undervisningsmetod och elevernas tolkning av denna, samt hur eleverna använder de verktyg och hjälpmedel som läraren förser dem med. Övergripande visade studierna att träning och upprepning av kamratrespons är den tydligaste framgångsfaktorn i kamratrespons. Studierna som undersökte samma fokusgrupp vid upprepade tillfällen visade på tydliga förbättringar i elevernas förmåga att ge och ta emot respons. Utifrån kunskapsöversikten drar vi slutsatsen att lärarnas valda metoder och verktyg fungerar som stöttning för eleverna vid kamratrespons och hjälper eleverna att ge en mer utvecklad och specifik respons. Däremot är det oklart vilken metod som är mest effektiv då det inte skett en jämförelse mellan olika metoder på samma elever.

Many students who come to universities and colleges find it difficult to acquire a well-functioning academic language, especially in writing. This is confirmed in several studies (Ahlm m.fl. 2009, Ask, 2005, 2007, Hoel 2010). One measure that is called for is concerted activities, which help to socialize students into the academy. The aim of this essay is to use the students’ experiences to elucidate and analyse the conditions for peer response in process-oriented writing in higher education, the difficulties it entails, and its consequences for teach-ing and learning. The students’ experiences of and attitudes to peer response in relation to academic literacy are studied and analysed critically in a course on the use of academic lan-guage. The empirical section presents the implementation and results of the selected methods – a questionnaire and interview with 30 and 5 students respectively on a professional educa-tion programme during their first year of study. The result shows a close correspondence be-tween the students’ experiences of peer response linked to their experiences of their develop-ment of academic writing, but also between their experiences of peer response and attitudes to and experiences of their knowledge of academic writing. The study also demonstrates the students’ experiences of success factors and pitfalls of peer response. The success factors concern metalanguage, working with a clear structure, reading and discussion of texts, and the need for an open, secure climate. The students’ experiences of the pitfalls of peer response concern, on the one hand, socio-emotional and psychological aspects in relation to the other students, for example the difficulty of balancing the response, and especially of daring to crit-icize a text sharply. On the other hand, it concerns the fear of not being good enough because of inadequate knowledge of academic language and academic text.

Corona-pandemin har påverkat utbildningen på många sätt, inte minst för dem som studerar svenska som andraspråk. Interaktion, kommunikation och kollaborativt lärande är viktiga delar av språkinlärning och något som blivit lidande av den påtvingade distansundervisningen. En metod för kollaborativt lärande som med fördel kan genomföras med digitala verktyg är kamratrespons. I denna studie undersöktes hur deltagare på en folkhögskola påverkats av den påtvingade distansundervisningen, med fokus på deras studier i svenska som andraspråk på gymnasienivå, och huruvida ett digitalt kamratresponssystem skulle kunna gynna det kollaborativa lärandet med digitala hjälpmedel. Studien genomfördes med deltagare och lärare på Mångkulturella Folkhögskolan i Göteborg, genom kvalitativa frågeformulär och intervjuer. Det empiriska resultatet visar på en varierad bakgrund bland deltagarna, till viss del försämrad studiemotivation på grund av distansundervisningen, samt en positiv inställning till kamratrespons som en möjlighet att lära av varandra. Tillsammans med tidigare forskning inom språkinlärning, datorstödd språkinlärning och datorstött kollaborativt lärande identifierades ett antal riktlinjer för framtagandet av ett digitalt kamratresponssystem som anses kunna gynna den studerade kontexten. Dessa riktlinjer gestaltas i ett designkoncept som visar ett förslag till hur det digitala kamratresponssystemet skulle kunna se ut. / The Corona pandemic has affected education in many ways, and those studying Swedish as a second language are no exception. Interaction, communication, and collaborative learning are all important factors of successful second language acquisition, all of which have been reduced because of forced remote learning. One method for collaborative learning that can be enhanced using digital tools is peer response. This study has examined how the adult students at a folk high school have been affected by the forced remote learning, focusing on their studies in Swedish as a second language at high-school level. The study also investigates whether a digital peer-response system could benefit the collaborative learning process for the involved students. The study involved students and teachers at Mångkulturella Folkhögskolan in Gothenburg, Sweden, who were asked to participate through an online survey and individual interviews. The empirical result shows a vast diversity among the participants, a somewhat decreased motivation to study due to forced remote learning, and a positive attitude towards peer response as a possibility to learn from each other. Together with previous research in the fields of language acquisition, computer assisted language learning and computer supported collaborative learning, several guidelines have been developed for the development of a digital peer review system that are considered to be favourable for the studied context. These guidelines have been illustrated in a design concept that shows a suggestion as to what the digital peer response system could look like.