In the curriculum for Swedish as a second language at upper secondary school, there is a clear emphasis on giving students rich opportunities to develop their language for different purposes. It also advocates the use of fiction in teaching as a source of insight about other people's experiences and imaginary worlds (Skolverket, 2023b).

A didactic method that provides opportunities for aspects such as communication and enriching reading experiences in teaching is literary conversation. Unfortunately, teachers often find it challenging to conduct this method, leaving students alone in their reading. This study aims to examine a number of Swedish as a second language students' experiences of participating in literary conversations, in relation to what they consider educational with the method.

The study is based on four open questionnaires, answered by three students who have participated in literary conversations.

The result shows that the development of communicative abilities such as participating in and keeping a conversation going, improving oral speech and practicing speaking in front of others in a good manner, was what the students mainly considered educational about participating in literary conversations.

Furthermore, the shared reading experience was also important with the opportunity to take part in other people's perspectives, create an understanding of the text together, and gain an increased understanding of each other's similarities and differences. Basedon Biesta's (2011) theory of the three educational dimensions, qualification, socialization and subjectification, the results also indicate that the aspects students find educational with the literature discussion are included in all three of these dimensions, which shows that through the literature discussion the students develop both practical, theoretical and social knowledge, and get the opportunity to become an individual through conversations with others.