EFL teachers’ and students’ perceptions of peer review in upper secondary schools in Sweden

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to examine how three teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Swedish upper secondary education use peer review, and to investigate the perceptions of these teachers and three EFL students regarding peer review. Interviews were used for data collection and content-analysis of the interviews was conducted. The results showed that many types of peer reviews are used in the teachers’ classrooms, both oral and written peer reviews on both oral and written assignments. The results also showed that all six participants regarded peer review positively.  The teachers cited discussions, seeing another person’s perspective and becoming self-aware as positive outcomes of peer review while listing insecurity and preconceived notions about others’ ability to express themselves in English as difficulties that can be encountered while engaging in peer reviews. The students reported collaboration, receiving concrete comments from peers as well as seeing other’s perspectives as positive outcomes of peer review. Their main difficulty regarding peer review was that some peers were not receptive of peer feedback. As such, the participants’ overall perceptions of peer review are positive and shows that it can be useful to implement peer review in classrooms.