New Perspectives in Science Education
Transmodalising Multiliteracies Pedagogy for Multilingual Learners’ Science Learning
Sujin Kim, George Mason University (United States)
Abstract
This presentation reconceptualizes scaffolding for multilingual learners’ (MLs’) science learning through transmodalising multiliteracies pedagogy (Kim et al., 2026) enacted via transmodalising infographic design in upper elementary science classrooms. Infographics—multimodal visual representations integrating data, images, and text—offer unique opportunities for MLs to leverage diverse semiotic resources in disciplinary communication. Drawing on a university-school partnership, this study examines how elementary students transformed traditional science inquiry into multimodal, multilingual infographics for authentic audiences. Rather than treating multimodality as temporary support until MLs achieve English proficiency, this study positions transmodalising, defined as purposeful, coordinated movement across modes, as ongoing metacognitive scaffolding that deepens disciplinary understanding while affirming multilingual identities (Grapin, 2019; Kim, 2021). Metacognitively, MLs navigated highly complex tasks through multimodal orchestration: epistemic decision-making (analyzing science learning standards to determine conceptual hierarchy), semiotic translation (transforming messages across modes while monitoring semantic equivalence and expansion), audience-aware rhetorical design (evaluating communicative effectiveness for diverse linguistic communities), critical metalinguistic awareness (leveraging family translanguaging capacity for contextual expression), and iterative self-regulation (revising across drafts). This transmodal composition required sophisticated designing, monitoring, and reflection—authentic scientific processes often obscured in traditional assessments. Importantly, these metacognitive demands were not reduced for MLs; rather, transmodalising provided alternative pathways to the same cognitively complex work. Affectively, positioning MLs as translingual experts transformed classroom dynamics from disengagement to ownership. Previously silent students became essential collaborators; families became intellectual partners through home-language consultation; test burnout shifted to voluntary extended engagement. Teachers observed that students “marinated” in content through iterative design rather than last-minute cramming. Critically, the approach disrupted deficit framings of MLs’ cognitive and linguistic capabilities. Students worked with actual standards documents, created materials for real audiences, and made authentic communicative choices about multilingual representation. The presentation concludes by arguing for transmodalising as scaffolding-as-ongoing-design, while repositioning MLs’ full semiotic repertoires as epistemic tools rather than barriers to learning.
Keywords: Transmodalising multiliteracies pedagogy, infographics, multilingual learners
REFERENCES
[1] Kim, S., Chen, X., Langston, E., Ramos, K.A., & Graville, C. (2026). Multilingual learners as designers of science communication: Transmodalising multiliteracies pedagogy using infographics. Science Education, 110(1), 441-458.
[2] Kim, S. (2021). Transmodalising pedagogy: Developing STEM disciplinary literacy for young emergent bilingual learners. Bilingual Research Journal, 44(3), 281-297.
