How does the discussion of academic language communities help college freshmen and sophomores find success in typical college introductory courses? And, how does applying critical thinking help students move more easily into the academic language community of their chosen major?

There is a strong connection between critical thinking in general and critical thinking in specific fields of study. Often college freshmen and sophomore general studies requirements are intended to introduce students to the array of different academic language communities. To help us understand how a given academic discipline functions, the typical introductory course is designed to explain:
• The kinds of questions that the discipline seeks to address
• The evidence the discipline understands to be relevant to resolving its questions
• The concepts, terminology, and basic theories of the discipline
• The methods and techniques of inquiry used in the discipline
• The criteria the discipline applies when evaluating the quality of work produced
• The contexts within which the discipline conducts its work
Notice how well this list matches the list presented by the expert consensus researchers as they described critical thinking, cited in the opening chapters of this book: "We understand critical thinking to be purposeful, self-regulatory judgment that results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based." Critical thinking within a disciplinary language community is like critical thinking within any language community. Different language communities, and in particular different academic disciplines, focus on the specific evidence, concepts, methods, criteria, and context. But the critical thinking skills and habits of mind apply across all language communities. As a result, strengthening our critical thinking skills and habits of mind helps us when we venture into different academic language communities. Through steady effort, practice, and attention to the language conventions of the different communities, we gain warranted confidence in our own ability to speak effectively and interpret accurately. In our introductory college courses, our challenge is to learn the terminology and the way that the discipline conducts its work-its questions, evidence, concepts, methods, criteria, and context of inquiry. By applying our critical thinking skills, and in particular the skill of interpretation, we can begin to take a few successful steps along the path toward fuller membership in these different academic language communities.