The purpose of this study was to research teachers' perceptions of the meaning of reading together with students in upper secondary school in the subject Swedish as a second language. The method used in this study was qualitative semi-structured interviews where eight teachers were included. The theoretical framework of the study consists of the sociocultural perspective of learning, Cummins' theories on second language learning, and Parans' theories about the teaching of literature. The study shows that there is no obvious structure of reading together, instead the results indicate that reading together is a highly spontaneous learning activity where different aspects such as choice of literature, group dynamic, or level of language development could affect the shared reading experience. The result also presents the impact of teachers' use of body language and how body language can be used as tool to support students' understanding of a text. Furthermore, the study shows that the foremost didactic possibilities with reading together were the high degree of scaffolding the activity enables and the joy of reading and feeling of fellowship that could emerge from the shared reading experience. The foremost didactic challenge the study presents was to find a book that suits every student, considering both their interest and their different levels of language development. Regarding teachers' perceptions on the meaning of using a second language perspective, it appears that it is not entirely clear what this means. However, it shows that teachers intend to take students' different backgrounds and experiences into account, but how this sometimes can have the opposite effect. Lastly, the conclusion of the study is that reading together is created by the readers and how they interact with the text, and how that creates space for an imaginative and spontaneous shared reading experience by exploratory reading. Keywords: body language, exploratory reading, fiction, reading together, second language learnin