Multilingual Learners as Designers of Science Communication: Transmodalising Multiliteracies Pedagogy Using Infographics

This study examines how transmodalising multiliteracies pedagogy (TMP) using infographics can support multilingual learners' (MLs') engagement in disciplinary learning and literacy development in science. Collaborating with 5th grade science and ESOL teachers, this study asked: (1) How did students engage in science inquiry through creating infographics? (2) How did students' engagement and design choices evolve over time? (3) What affordances and semiotic implications were made available and manifested during the process? Drawing on qualitative data, including student‐designed infographics, teacher interviews, observational field notes, and student reflections, we examined how students' disciplinary participation evolved across multiple stages of infographic design. Findings demonstrate that TMP facilitated multimodal and multilingual meaning‐making, enabling MLs to draw from their full semiotic repertoires, including home languages, to communicate complex scientific ideas. Guided to design for authentic audiences, students enacted epistemic agency through purposeful visual storytelling, audience awareness, and creative design. Rather than being limited by standardized formats or dominant language norms, students crafted disciplinary messages that reflected their lived experiences and communicative intent. This study advances TMP as a critical equity‐oriented pedagogy that repositions MLs as designers of science communication and active participants in disciplinary literacy.