Chris Faltis was schooled in Mexico as a young child and grew up in Northern California bilingual in Spanish and English. He attended college at San Francisco State University, earning a degree in Spanish language and literature. After college he taught ESL for 2 and half years in San Jose, California, and he subsequently earned an M.A. in Chicano Studies at San Jose State University in 1976. In 1978, he moved to Medellin, Colombia to teach English as a foreign language. He returned to the States to complete advanced degrees (M.A. & Ph.D.) at Stanford University, graduating in 1983. Since finishing at Stanford he has taught at the University of Alabama, the University of Nevada, and Arizona State University, where he has been a Professor of Bilingual Education and Applied Linguistics since 1991.
In 1986, Chris served as a Senior Research Fulbright Scholar at the National Autonomous University of Honduras. In 1999, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Education, at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught Language in Education. In 2001, the American Educational Research Association presented him with the Distinguished Scholar Award for his work in the role and status of minorities in education. He was the editor of the TESOL Journal (1994-1998) and Educational Researcher (1998-2001). Chris has published more than 60 scholarly articles and book chapters on promoting bilingualism and the teaching of immigrant English learners in school, and has published 15 books on these topics. Among his most recent work includes Teaching English Language Learners in Elementary School Communities: A Joinfostering Approach (2006); Immigrant Students in U.S. Schools: Building a Pro-Immigrant, English Plus Education Counterscript (2007), and Coming out of the ESL ghetto: Promising practices for Latino Immigrant Students and English Learners in Hypersegregated Secondary Schools (with Beatriz Arias, 2007).
Chris was the first teacher educator to publish a research-based volume on teaching English learners in secondary schools (Peabody Journal of Education, 1993). In 1999, he published with Paula Wolfe as co-editor, So Much to Say: Adolescents, Bilingualism, and ESL in the Secondary School. The volume, published by Teachers College Press, was a compendium of novel research on immigrant English learners in middle and high school contexts. In 2007, Chris and co-author Cathy Coulter published the first book for secondary teachers on ways to improve instruction for English learners in high schools. This book, Teaching English Learners and Immigrant Students in Secondary Schools and it companion volume, Teaching English Learners in Elementary School Communities: A Joinfostering Approach, are currently used in more than 60 teacher education programs nationwide.
In addition to his writing, Chris has given scores of conference presentations and keynote speeches at national organizations on the topic of teaching immigrant students, promoting bilingualism and the learning of English. He has served as a consultant for school districts aiming to improve the academic achievement of their English learner student populations. Chris has worked with schools and school districts in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Arizona, Nevada, New Jersey, and Texas.
Finally, Chris is an oil painter and has shown his works in Arizona, Georgia, and Texas.
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