It takes research to build a community: Ongoing challenges for scholars in digitally-supported communicative language teaching

© 2015, Equinox Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. This article provides an argument for closer multilateral alliances between the emer-gent and loosely-bound international community of educational researchers who are working in areas related to Digitally Supported Communicative Language Teaching and learning (herein DSCLT). By taking advantage of the communications revolu-tion that is currently reshaping the world, internationally aligned investigators can foster new knowledge, technology, and practices that develop improved teaching strategies and policies appropriate to our rapidly changing times. Beginning with a brief overview of the impact that technology has had on education and post-2000 nascent research areas related to DSCLT, this article goes on to examine whether or not the impact of research is geographically bound, and if so, how transnational alliances can be useful in bridging gaps in the continuum of knowledge-building. Finally, the potential gains that could stem from an enhanced collaboration between international research communities are examined, although admittedly such endeavors are not without challenges.