1. UNIVERSIDAD MAGISTER
CARRERA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLÉS
TESIS PARA OPTAR POR EL GRADO DE LICENCIATURA
EN LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLÉS
APPLICATION OF THE COMMUNICATIVE
APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF COSTA RICAN
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
MAGDA ABAD VALVERDE
2011

2. TRIBUNAL EXAMINADOR
Esta Tesis es aprobada por el Tribunal Examinador de la Carrera de Licenciatura
en la Enseñanza del Inglés, como requisito para optar al grado de Licenciatura con
Énfasis en la Enseñanza del Inglés.
San José, a los 04 días del mes de abril del 2011.
________________________________________
Máster Vivian González Trejos. Tutora
________________________________________
Máster Lawrence Vega Miranda. Lector Interno
i

3. COMITÉ ASESOR
El Trabajo Final de Graduación es aprobado por el Comité Asesor de la Carrera de
Enseñanza del Inglés, como requisito para optar al Grado de Licenciatura en la
Enseñanza del Inglés.
San José, a los 04 días del mes de abril del dos mil once.
__________________________________________
Máster. Vivian González Trejos, Lectora
__________________________________________
Máster Lawrence Vega Miranda, Tutor
ii

4. DECLARACIÓN JURADA
Yo Magda Abad Valverde, estudiante de la Universidad Magíster, declaro bajo fe
del juramento y consciente de la responsabilidad penal de éste, que soy la autora
intelectual del Trabajo Final de Graduación intitulado: Application of the
Communicative Approach to the teaching of Costa Rican Indigenous Students; por
lo que libero a la Universidad de cualquier responsabilidad.
San José, a los 04 días del mes de abril del 2011
________________________________________
Magda Abad Valverde
Cédula 03-0275-0532
iii

5. A MI MADRE
iv

6. AGRADECIMIENTO
Deseo manifestar mi mayor agradecimiento a mis directores de Tesis, MBA. Vivian
González Trejos y M.L. Lawrence Vega Miranda, quienes muy amablemente
siempre y oportunamente estuvieron anuentes a brindarme sus importantes
recomendaciones. Así mismo, deseo extender mi agradecimiento a la bibliotecaria
del C.T.P. La Suiza, Lcda. Yamileth Rodríguez Cerdas y a todas aquellas
personas que me apoyaron para que este trabajo pudiera ser una realidad.
v

7. vi

8. vii

9. CONTENT
Page
Tribunal Examinador
i
Comité Asesor
ii
Declaración Jurada
iii
Dedicatoria
iv
Agradecimiento
v
Carta Autorización (Colegio)
vi
Carta Autorización Uso de Trabajo de Investigación
vii
Content
viii
Charts Index
x
Graphs Index
xi
Maps Index
xii
Preface
xiii
Chapter I Introduction
01
1.1 Introductory Aspects
02
1.2 Justification
05
1.3 Problem Statement
06
1.4 General Objective
07
1.5 Specific Objectives
07
1.6 Limitations
07
1.7 Delimitations
08
Chapter II Theoretical Framework
09
2.1 Introduction
10
2.2 Indigenous Languages
10
2.3 Ethnic Groups
13
2.4 Second Language Acquisition
20
2.5 MEP’s General Objective
65
2.6 UNICEF’s Report
72
viii

10. Chapter III Methodological Framework
74
3.1 Research Type
75
3.2 Information Sources
75
3.3 Population
76
3.4 Sample
76
3.5 Technical Instruments
76
3.6 Variables Definition
76
3.7 Gathering of Information
78
3.8 Data Analysis
79
3.9 Information Processing
79
Chapter IV Analysis and Interpretation of Results
80
4.1 Questionnaire
81
4.2 Telephone Interviews
98
Chapter V Conclusions and Recommendations
107
5.1 Conclusions
108
5.2 Recommendations
113
Chapter VI Proposal
114
6.1 Introduction
115
6.2 General Objective
116
6.3 Specific Objectives
116
6.4 Proposed Communicative Activities
116
Bibliography
125
Web References
128
Appendix
131
Encuesta sobre educación bilingüe en comunidades
indígenas de Costa.Rica .(2009/2010)
132
Entrevista sobre educación bilingüe en comunidades
indígenas de Costa.Rica (2011)
137
ix

11. CHARTS INDEX
Page
CHART 1: COGNATES
11
CHART 2: ETHNOLOGUE REPORT FOR COSTA RICA
12
CHART 3: MASLOW’S PYRAMID
57
CHART 4: FAMILY STATUS
81
CHART 5: FAMILY EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
82
CHART 6: BROTHERS/SISTERS OCCUPATION
83
CHART 7: SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
84
CHART 8: HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL
85
CHART 9: WAY TO GO TO SCHOOL
86
CHART 10: SCHOOLS NEARBY
87
CHART 11: SPOKEN CABECAR
88
CHART 12: ENGLISH MOTIVATION
89
CHART 13: STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING
90
CHART 14: ENGLISH DIFFICULTY
91
CHART 15: SCHOOL DIFFICULTY
92
CHART 16: STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION
93
CHART 17: STUDY MOTIVATION
94
CHART 18: MOTIVATION FOR OTHER LANGUAGES
95
CHART 19: UNIVERSITY MOTIVATION
96
CHART 20: ADULTS SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
98
CHART 21: EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM LEVELS
99
CHART 22: SCHOOLS
100
CHART 23: SPOKEN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE
101
CHART 24: ENGLISH EXPERIENCE
102
CHART 25: ADULTS ENGLISH MOTIVATION
103
CHART 26: ADULTS SCHOOL MOTIVATION
104
x

12. GRAPHS INDEX
Page
GRAPH 1: FAMILY STATUS
81
GRAPH 2: FAMILY EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
82
GRAPH 3: BROTHERS/SISTERS OCCUPATION
83
GRAPH 4: SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
84
GRAPH 5: HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL
85
GRAPH 6: WAY TO GO TO SCHOOL
86
GRAPH 7: SCHOOLS NEARBY
87
GRAPH 8: SPOKEN CABECAR
88
GRAPH 9: ENGLISH MOTIVATION
89
GRAPH 10: STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING
90
GRAPH 11: ENGLISH DIFFICULTY
91
GRAPH 12: SCHOOL DIFFICULTY
92
GRAPH 13: STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION
93
GRAPH 14: STUDY MOTIVATION
94
GRAPH 15: MOTIVATION FOR OTHER LANGUAGES
95
GRAPH 16: UNIVERSITY MOTIVATION
96
GRAPH 17: ADULTS SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
99
GRAPH 18: EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM LEVELS
100
GRAPH 19: SCHOOLS
101
GRAPH 20: SPOKEN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE
102
GRAPH 21: ENGLISH EXPERIENCE
103
GRAPH 22: ADULTS ENGLISH MOTIVATION
104
GRAPH 23: ADULTS SCHOOL MOTIVATION
105
xi

13. MAPS INDEX
Page
MAP 1: COSTA RICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES
13
MAP 2: COSTA RICAN ETHNIC GROUPS TERRITORIES
20
xii

14. PREFACE
This work is intended to persuade teachers to use the Communicative Language
Teaching to favor second and third language learning in classrooms where there
are indigenous students who may have some kind of difficulties when studying
English.
It is divided into six chapters: Chapter I has to do with introductory aspects that
express ideas regarding the problem, the justification, and the objectives for this
work.
Chapter II deals with our Costa Rican ethnic groups, who they are, where they are
located, and what languages they speak. It also refers to some questions and
answers some of our indigenous people were involved in order to know more about
their culture, their behavior, their motivation to study, their difficulties in learning
and their opinions or comments. There are also some important language theories
and approaches mentioned like the Audio Lingual Method, the Natural Approach,
the Total Physical Response, and the Communicative Approach, to be considered
as a base for the main aim of this work that is, to provide and recommend different
communicative learning activities for our aborigens to be more successful in
school.
Chapter III refers to the methods and procedures used to develop this research.
So, it has to do with the gathering of information, the technical instruments used,
the sample that was considered and represented teenager students and adults
from different indigenous groups like Bribri, Cabecar, Guaymi, Huetar, Chorotega,
Boruca, and Maleku.
Chapter IV deals with the analysis of the information gather through a
questionnaire and interviews. It has questions like How do you go to school,? Do
you like English,? Do you understand your teachers’ explanations,? How would
you like English to be taught .?
xiii

15. Chapter V has to do with conclusions, for example, In regard to the question ―do
you like English ?,‖ it can be concluded that most indigenous students are
motivated to learn English, because almost all the students said they enjoyed
English.
Chapter VI refers to the proposal. These are the specific objectives: to provide
some practical ideas and exercises that will help indigenous students to be more
successful and more motivated in school, to persuade teachers to expand their
ways and techniques of teaching by including more communicative activities in
their lessons, and to motivate teachers to use curricular adjustments with
indigenous students, so that they may be given more attention and more time to
develop the practices or exercises.
xiv

16. CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

17. 2
1.1 INTRODUCTORY ASPECTS
In Latin America, native populations are located in difficult access sites, where
there are not public services. They have chosen those places to protect
themselves from foreign invasions. Unfortunately, that has prevented most of them
to participate actively in the society they belong to. They have remained almost
isolated, and their living conditions are based on their closest natural environment
and their little cultural demands.
However, non natives have managed the way to get to these far away places in
order to buy their production and take advantage of their naïve condition or lack of
knowledge in terms of trading, for example.
In Costa Rica, as well as in other American countries, the Indian population is
scattered throughout the country, especially in far away places where nature is
their basic context, with no electricity, technology or any other modern
conveniences and influences, (see map 2.) For this reason, our indigenous people
should be given the opportunity to learn how to deal with non natives, with a
different language, in order to sell their products at reasonable prices, as well as to
leave their secure home to get other goods they might want or need for bettering
their conditions or ways of living.
Native Indian languages in America are in danger of extinction due to other
dominant languages like Spanish, English and Portuguese. In Costa Rica, our
indigenous population must study and learn Spanish and English as part of their
survival goals in our society; so that they can participate actively in everything that
helps them improve their living conditions.
Moreover, the Constitution of Costa Rica establishes that all citizens should be
given the free opportunity to study, at least up to the third cycle of basic education.
Education as a universal right, is Intended to improve the living conditions of
human beings. In this respect,
Programa
de
Ricardo Chaves mentions in Diseño de
Capacitación Docente
en
Materia de
Idiomas
un
Indígenas

18. 3
Costarricenses para la Dirección Regional Educativa de Limón del Ministerio de
Educación Pública (2009) that:
“La educación está considerada como uno de los pilares en la
construcción del progreso y bienestar de la humanidad, representa un
derecho fundamental que tienen todas las personas, sin consideración
de edad, condición económica, social, étnica, política, ética, religiosa y
otra cualquiera. Una educación de calidad debe contribuir al éxito
personal y colectivo de quienes aprenden a adaptarse al contexto
socio-cultural, lo que permite a los individuos actuar con mayor
seguridad y eficacia en un mundo de cambios acelerados y profundos.”
(Chaves, 2009)
Chaves states that
Costa Rican education should get to all social groups,
especially the indigenous population, that must develop individual capabilities for
developing an integral human being, with all the necessary tools provided for
modern societies:
“La educación costarricense debe integrar todas las instancias
sociales a fin de organizar y brindar el rendimiento óptimo en la
formación integral de los individuos y en el caso particular debe tomar
como imprescindible la incorporación de la cultura indígena como
elemento curricular importante. Como resultado de esta integración la
sociedad se forma un ideal del hombre, tanto desde el punto de vista
intelectual, físico y moral; así como resultado de una sociedad de
tradición milenaria, que este ideal es, hasta cierto punto el mismo para
todos los ciudadanos.” (Chaves, 2009)
Now, in a world where competencies and abilities are part of an individual’s
success, to learn more than one language is totally necessary. There are still
groups that speak their native language, and this has put them aside from
progress. Therefore, it is necessary for a person to handle two or more languages.
In Costa Rica, for these native people to learn Spanish has become a need to be
part of a demanding society, but the interconnection with other societies makes it
necessary to speak English as well.
According to the Ministry of Education, it is mandatory for all students to take
English in high school, and in many elementary schools. Therefore, all Costa Rican
citizens have the right to learn about the world that surrounds them and to possess
the basic tools to confront the requirements of society. Nearby 1995, the

19. 4
government of Costa Rica declared the necessity of breaking social barriers by
teaching English to children since first grade, so that they would have the same
opportunities that students in private schools had. The idea has been to enlarge
the capacity of the population to confront a world where English is a basic tool.
Since then, many schools include in their curriculum English as a mandatory
subject, in which children are taught the basic skills of listening, speaking, writing
and reading. Teachers have been trained to include in their classes methodologies
that improve communication. The intention has been to expand these programs all
over Costa Rica. Consequently, the indigenous population has also the right to be
included in this program. But how can teachers approach a population that barely
speaks Spanish or confront a situation in which there is no electricity or any
technological means. There are methods in which the teacher can use only the
materials provided by nature, or in which the class becomes active due to the
integral situations of life that the students may learn. Hence, it is the researcher’s
intention to provide a set of techniques and activities for learning English as a
foreign language to be used everywhere in the country, especially, where there is
no electricity to use modern technological methods.
The teaching provided to American indigenous people in the United States, has
been criticized by both, ―Indians and not Indians,‖ said Jon Reyhner. He stated that
―The problem with the all-English immersion teaching methods used in Indian
schools were not the methods per se, but the fact that they were used to replace
the children's Native languages rather than to give children an additional
language.‖ That is to say, the methods and the topics to be developed for teaching
native people must expand what the students already know. He suggests, for
instance, ESL teaching using realia to help comprehensible input, using students
experiences encouraging language practice through talking and writing in wellknown situations. Now, the same situation may as well be practiced in Costa Rica.
The intention is not to replace the native population’s language, or to make them
act or think differently, but to expand their horizon and possibilities, in such a way
that they can defend themselves in a competitive world where English is a
requirement.

20. 5
1.2 JUSTIFICATION
In Costa Rica, thousands of students go to the university to learn English, many of
them have decided to become English teachers. They learn the methodologies and
approaches necessary to motivate students to learn English. They themselves are
interested in learning and acquiring this language, as well. They know that they
need it to survive in a competitive world. In fact, a person who speaks English will
have the opportunity to find a better job, to travel abroad or to enlarge his/her
education by taking courses in another country. English teachers learn how to use
realia, how to induce their students to obtain data from a text, or how to write long
academic essays that can be used later on in broader academic environments or in
special companies. However, few teachers worry about the methodologies that can
be used for special groups that do not have the opportunity to be integrated in the
same society in which they are teaching.
Few English professors worry about the methodologies used to teach people who
live in very isolated places. Most of these teachers think that all Costa Ricans
speak Spanish, that most Costa Ricans live in the Central Valley, or that all Costa
Ricans live in well organized towns with electricity and water services. But there is
another Costa Rica, one that very few imagine, as well. It is a Costa Rica in which
people live in small villages, or completely isolated. A Costa Rica in which there
are no basic services like water or electricity supply. This is a Costa Rica in which
its citizens do not speak Spanish, or even do not know that San José, the capital
exists. Nevertheless, it is a Costa Rica whose citizens deserve the same treatment
and consideration as those who live in the Central Valley, and who also need an
education, in the best possible way, so that they will obtain a new perspective of
life and culture without changing their own.
It has not been a government priority to spend the budget in developing indigenous
programs that will help them improve their status and participation as active
citizens. In Costa Rica, indigenous people need our support in helping them
develop their abilities to actively participate in the social, economical and cultural
spheres. The best way to accomplish this, would be through education. And since

21. 6
they live in far away places with difficult access, where no modern conveniences
reach them, people in charge of teaching them, must provide everything that is
needed for such a teaching-learning experience.
According to González and Hammond, ―second
language teaching must be
integrated with the social, cultural, and political context of language use‖.
Thus, indigenous people should be immersed in an integral type of education that
considers not only the content to be taught, but also their culture, their interests or
objectives for learning, and their environment.
1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT
The indigenous people setting represents a challenge for anybody who can be
interested in helping them bettering and opening their opportunities for improving
their ways of living.
In Costa Rica, as well as in other Latin American countries, geographical barriers
allow the establishment of different native cultures. And the Ministry of Education
has not launched any particular syllabus to cover our indigenous people needs and
interests. Therefore, we should provide education trying not to substitute but to
compliment their culture.
As González and Hammond stated, ―schools and teacher education programs
often focus on pushing students to work rapidly and realistically to acquire fluent
English without attention to continued first language development. This approach
minimizes the connections between first and second language development and
reduces the potential for advancement in both languages‖. Therefore, it raises the
question: Why is it necessary to propose the Communicative Approach with the
Costa Rican indigenous people ?

22. 7
1.4 GENERAL OBJECTIVE
To propose an implementation in the use of the Communicative Approach to Costa
Rican indigenous students.
Then, it would be pertinent to consider several important questions to be
answered: What should be taught ?, What should a teacher do to help them learn
with a purpose for themselves? Finally, How can they be taught ?
1.5 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
1. To establish the necessary changes in the application of the Communicative
Approach to aborigins.
2. To propose English learning activities to be used with different ethnic
groups.
3. To identify indigenous students language difficulties in learning English to
overcome them.
1.6 LIMITATIONS
1.6.1 Geographical Location: due to the fact that most indigenous students live
in the mountains, far away from the cities, it is very difficult to get to them in
their communities.
1.6.2 Time: during vacation time it is impossible to work with students in the
high schools.
1.6.3 Lack of material sources: there are no records of indigenous students in
schools and most of them do not have telephone.
1.6.4 Students culture and behavior: indigenous people are mostly shy, so it is
sometimes hard to get access or communicate to them. Girls seem to be less
open with strangers, so it is sometimes more difficult to interview them.

23. 8
1.7 DELIMITATIONS
Most of the observations and the questionnaire were applied to Cabecar
students from La Suiza Technical High School, and other Cabecar students from
other communities and schools, including Chirripo, Grano de Oro, Tayutic, and
Roca Quemada. For the telephone interviews, seven adults participated from
the following indigenous groups: Chorotega, Maleku, Huetar, Guaymi, Bribri,
and Boruca.

24. CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

25. 10
2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter there is a set of topics that are necessary to take into account
because they are basic for this research. It refers to the different indigenous Costa
Ricans, and the languages some of them keep as their first language. It also deals
with outstanding theories and methods related to the teaching/learning process,
especially the Communicative Language Teaching. In addition, it refers to some
considerations in regard to the way a person acquires another language, and what
the Costa Rican Ministry of Education proposes as its goals and procedures in
terms of methodology and evaluation. It has to do with this year UNICEF’S report
about education enrollment of children in Latin America.
2.2 INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES
Different linguistic studies, have demonstrated that all languages are born, evolve
and die. The linguist., Enrique Margery, concluded that in a hundred years 530
Indigenous languages will die in America due to the importance and influence of
different European languages spoken in Latin America.
“El prestigio que alcanzan las lenguas oficiales en las comunidades
indígenas, con el consecuente bilingüismo que tal situación impone, implica,
en la mayor parte de los casos un elemento que presiona negativamente el
aprendizaje de las lenguas indígenas en el núcleo familiar. Esta interrupción
del aprendizaje, unido por lo común a la valoración negativa de ellas,
significa el inicio del proceso de muerte de tales lenguas.” (Abad 2005)
This means that our indigenous population is facing cultural problems in which the
official language of the country is replacing in certain ways their native tongue; that
is why it will be fundamental to incorporate their native culture and language as a
mandatory objective when teaching English or any other foreign language to them.

26. 11
According to the linguist Victor Ml. Arroyo (1972,) from several aboriginal groups
that used to inhabit the Costa Rican territory in previous centuries, during 1972,
there were only 5 ethnic groups: Guatusos to the north of the country, Bribris,
Cabecares, Terrabas, and Bruncas in mountains and valleys.
Today, the languages represented by the remaining groups have basic roots
common to all of them, which suggests a common origin, too. Thus, as shown in
this example given by Arroyo, we can find cognates in all of them; for instance, to
say the word ―water‖, they use the following terms:
CHART 1: Cognates
BRIBRI
CABECAR
TERRABA
BRUNCA
GUATUSO
Di
digle
di
di
Ti
Source: Arroyo. Lenguas Indígenas Costarricenses.1972, p.14.
As he says, there aren’t monolingual speakers in Brunca or Guatuso, and the other
groups are bilingual; moreover, some of them prefer to use their second
language—Spanish for everyday situations.
Therefore, it is necessary to get a data ―corpus‖ of basic vocabulary to be taught,
the same that is taken into consideration for glotocronological purposes, to have a
better and easier understanding of their language in relation to English.
For Costa Rica, Ethnologue (2009,) reported that there are 26,782 native
indigenous speakers scattered in different regions throughout
shown in the following chart and map.
the country, as

27. 12
CHART 2: Ethnologue Report for Costa Rica
LANGUAGE
DIALECTS
Boruca
ALTERNATE
NAMES
SPEAKERS
ETHNIC
POPULATION
LOCATION
Borunca, Brunca,
Brunka, Burunca
5 (1986 SIL). 30
to 35 nonfluent
speakers
1,000 (1991).
South coast
between Playa
Bonita and
Golfito
Talamanca
11,000 (2002)
12,172 (2000)
South, Limón
Province,
Canton of
Talamanca,
along Lari,
Telire, Uren
rivers;
Puntarenas
Province,
Canton of
Buenos Aires
Cabécar
Chirripó, Telire,
Estrella,
9,308 (2000).
8,840 (2000).
7,072
monolinguals
(80%)
Turrialba region
Guatuso
Maléku Jaíka
1,074 (2000)
750 (2000)
Guaymí
Ngäbere
5,360 (2000)
5,090 in Costa
Rica (2000)
Teribe
Terraba
35 to 300 in
Costa Rica (1991
SIL)
5 in Costa
Rica(1991 SIL)
Bribri
SalitreCabagra,
Amubre-Katsi,
Coroma
Source: Ethnologue. 2009
Southeast,
north coast

28. 13
MAP 1: Costa Rican Indian Languages
Source: Ethnologue. 2009
2.3 ETHNIC GROUPS
In short, there are eight different indigenous groups widespread throughout the
country: Cabecar, Bribri, Guaymi, Terraba, Boruca, Guatuso / Maleku, Chorotega,
and Huetar.
2.2.1 CABECAR
According to Ethnologue (2009), Cabecar population is of 9,308, and 80% of them
speak Cabecar language as their only language.
In the posted UNESCO article (2011), Cabecar people are settled in many different
places and occupy most of their territory:

29. 14
“En la Vertiente Atlántica los cabécares se encuentran en las siguientes reservas
indígenas(1) Reserva Indígena Cabécar de Telire, de 16.260 hectáreas, en la
cuenca del río Pacuare, con 536 habitantes, 85% bosque y 100% posesión
indígena; (2) Reserva Indígena Alto Chirripó, de 77.973 hectáreas, en la cuenca
del río Pacuare, con 4.619 habitantes, 65% bosque, y 60% posesión indígena, con
los asentamientos de Alto Chirripó, Alto Pacuare, Vereh, Quetzal de Moravia,
Sipirí, Chiquiarí, Ñari, Paso Marcos, Boyei, Cabeza de Buey, Santubal, y Nimari;
(3) Reserva Indígena Cabécar Nairí Awari, de 5.038 hectáreas en la cuenca del
río Pacuare, con 346 habitantes, 70% bosque, y 85% posesión indígena; (4)
Reserva Indígena Cabécar de Bajo Chirripó, de 18.783 hectáreas en la cuenca del
río Pacuare, con 363 habitantes, 70% bosque, y 75% posesión indígena, con los
asentamientos Río Zent, Bajo Chirripó, Río Peje, Puerto Rico y Barbilla-Dantas;
(5) Reserva Indígena Cabécar de Tayni, de 16.216 hectáreas en la cuenca del río
La Estrella, con 1.807 habitantes, 85% bosque y 100% posesión indígena, con los
asentamientos Calveri, Cuen, Moi, Abuy, Cariei y Suruy; (6) Reserva de
Talamanca Cabécar, de 23.329 hectáreas en la cuenca del río Sixaola, con 1.335
habitantes, 65% bosque y 85% posesión indígena, con los asentamientos Gavilán
Canta, Siboju, San Miguel, Dos Bocas, Dury, Quebrada Guitarra, Mirador, San
José Cabécar, Urochico y San Vicente de Río Moi (Tenorio 1988: 22,48;
CONAI 2001). Fuera de las reservas en la Vertiente Atlántica, se encuentran en el
asentamiento de Tuis (Bozolli 1969: 11). En la Vertiente Pacífica, están: (1)
Reserva Indígena Cabécar China Kichá, de 1.100 hectáreas en la cuenca del río
Grande de Térraba, con 150 habitantes, 97% bosque, y 3% posesión indígena,
con los asentamientos Santa Cruz, Santa María, Guanacaste, Ceibo, y El Carmen
(Tenorio 1988: 22; CONAI 2001). “ (UNESCO 2011).
Their traditional settlement was said to be design for an extensive use of the
natural resources. They had large areas for hunting, fishing and for agriculture.
Their territories were separated by trees like Cedar, and other plants like ―Caña
India‖. Their houses were defined by any water stream nearby.
But, they say that in the last decades, the settlement pattern has changed because
of the opening of more access ways, electricity, health, work and educational
centers nearby. And with an increase in the population growth, the indigenous
population that inhabited the mountains, started to migrate to urban centers, along
the roads and ways to better access the communities. In the Pacific, they settled in
deforested plains or mountains, in ―ranchos‖ or houses, and water is obtained by
means of pipes (―cañería‖). In some cases there are environmental problems due
to pollution and the destruction of the traditional patterns for the ecosystems
management.
According to the Wikipedia article (2011,) these indigenous communities keep
several traditions and customs through cultural festivals, Cabecar language and

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knowledge transmission between generations, also by the building of traditional
houses and by different production activities related to agriculture and crafts. They
make bags and hammocks with natural fibers and decorated with natural colors or
tints.
With respect to their religion, some follow the Catholicism and some the
Shamanism. Cabecars are related to the Bribris, too.
2.2.2 BRIBRI
Bribri represents one of the largest Costa Rican indigenous groups that speak
Bribri. According to the article posted by Wikipedia, today, there are about 10,000
people scattered in the reserves of Salitre and Cabagra, in Buenos Aires Canton
(Puntarenas) and in the Talamanca reserve, in the Talamanca Canton. They
mostly work in agriculture with cocoa, plantain,corn, beans and some tubers. They
raise pigs and chicken, and hunt and fish, too. They make baskets and musical
instruments with different natural elements.
Their religion is said to be ―animist‖, based on a Shaman. They worship ―Sibú‖,
their God. Their society is structured in clans.
Bribri people like independence, so they build wooden houses with roofs made of
leaves, very separate from one another, some of the houses are as far as an hour
from each other.
According to an article posted by UNESCO (2011,) during the last decades their
settlements pattern has changed due to new roads, electricity, health, work and
educational centers. And with an increase in the population growth, the indigenous
population that inhabited the mountains, started to migrate to urban centers, along
roads to better access the communities.
The climate of Talamanca is tropical and rainy, and the annual temperature is
about 26.6 grades C. In
this region there is 90% of Costa Rican flora. In
Talamanca valley there are several rivers that represent the main means of
transport: Lari, Uren, Coén, Yorkín y Telire river.

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2.2.3 GUAYMI (Ngäbe )
According to Wikipedia article Guaymí is the traditional term for the Ngäbe, and
their language is Ngäbere (Guaymi). There are approximately 200,000-250,000
speakers of Ngäbere (Guaymi) today. A few Guaymi have solar electricity through
an electrification project, as well as cell phone service. Most live at or below the
poverty level. But