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In the project ReleQuant, we develop digital teaching resources for modern physics in upper secondary schools, and investigate students’ learning processes by means of Educational Design Research. The resources are developed within a sociocultural view of learning, and emphasise students’ use of language. In this paper we investigate how students understand two key principles in quantum physics, quantization and the wave-particle duality, and how students’ use of qualitative written language and peer discussions contribute to deepening their understanding of these principles. Data material is gathered from seven physics classes at five different schools. The results expose a number of misconceptions among students, and show that the use of language is important in order to reveal these misconceptions. However, if the authoritative voice of the teacher is not represented, the value of the discussions in developing students’ conceptions may be limited. We show how this depends on the kind of questions posed to students, and identify critical points where teachers should intervene with students in order to support their learning. © 2016 Berit Bungum og Cathrine Wahlstrøm Tellefsen. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)