本篇文章共分 16 段，從兒童從事的遊戲種類、遊戲對於創造力以及智能發展的影響，到專門研究遊戲功能的教育機構，以及目前的研究成果一一臚列，藉以說明遊戲對於人類發展與學習的重要性。

本篇考題英文原文與對應之中文翻譯整理如下。練習作答解題時若有對語意不清楚之處，請仔細查閱對照，以提升閱讀理解能力。

The Importance of Children's Play 兒童遊戲的重要性

1. 創造力的第一步

   Brick by brick, six-year-old Alice is building a magical kingdom. Imagining fairy-tale turrets and fire-breathing dragons, wicked witches and gallant heroes, she’s creating an enchanting world. Although she isn’t aware of it, this fantasy is helping her take her first steps towards her capacity for creativity and so it will have important repercussions in her adult life.

   一磚一瓦，六歲的愛麗絲正在建造一個魔法王國。想像著童話般的炮塔和噴火龍，邪惡的女巫和英勇的英雄，她正在創造一個迷人的世界。雖然她沒有意識到，但這個幻想正在幫助她向她的創造能力邁出第一步，因此這將對她的成年生活產生重要影響。

2. 各種遊戲方式

   Minutes later, Alice has abandoned the kingdom in favour of playing schools with her younger brother. When she bosses him around as his ‘teacher’, she’s practising how to regulate her emotions through pretence. Later on, when they tire of this and settle down with a board game, she’s learning about the need to follow rules and take turns with a partner.

   幾分鐘後，愛麗絲已經放棄了這個王國，轉而和她的弟弟一起玩起了上學遊戲。當她以「老師」的身份對他指手畫腳時，她正在練習如何通過假裝來調節自己的情緒。後來，當他們厭倦了這樣的遊戲並開始玩棋盤遊戲時，她在學習遵守規則和與夥伴輪流玩的必要性。

3. 遊戲與智能發展

   ‘Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species,’ says Dr David Whitebread from the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, UK. ‘It underpins how we develop as intellectual, problem-solving adults and is crucial to our success as a highly adaptable species.’

   英國劍橋大學教育學院的大衛．懷特布雷德博士說：「遊戲的豐富多樣性是人類的最高成就之一。它支撐著我們如何發展成為有智能的、能解決問題的成年人，對我們作為一個高度適應性的物種的成功至關重要。」

4. 遊戲與學習

   Recognizing the importance of play is not new: over two millennia ago, the Greek philosopher Plato extolled its virtues as a means of developing skills for adult life, and ideas about play-based learning have been developing since the 19th century.

   認識到遊戲的重要性並不新鮮：兩千多年前，希臘哲學家柏拉圖就稱讚遊戲是發展成人生活技能的一種手段，同時有關基於遊戲的學習想法自 19 世紀以來一直在發展。

5. 遊戲時間日益減少

   But we live in changing times, and Whitebread is mindful of a worldwide decline in play, pointing out that over half the people in the world now live in cities. ‘The opportunities for free play, which I experienced almost every day of my childhood, are becoming increasingly scarce,’ he says. Outdoor play is curtailed by perceptions of risk to do with traffic, as well as parents’ increased wish to protect their children from being the victims of crime, and by the emphasis on ‘earlier is better’ which is leading to greater competition in academic learning and schools.

   但我們生活在不斷變化的時代，懷特佈雷德注意到世界範圍內遊戲的減少，指出世界上一半以上的人現在生活在城市。他說：「我在童年時幾乎每天都經歷的自由玩耍的機會正變得越來越少。」戶外玩耍受到限制，原因在與交通有關的風險觀念，以及父母越來越希望保護他們的孩子不成為犯罪的受害者，還有對「越早越好」的強調，導致學術學習和學校的競爭更加激烈。

6. 遊戲政策

   International bodies like the United Nations and the European Union have begun to develop policies concerned with children’s right to play, and to consider implications for leisure facilities and educational programmes. But what they often lack is the evidence to base policies on.

   像聯合國和歐盟這樣的國際機構已經開始制定有關兒童遊戲權的政策，並考慮對休閒設施和教育計劃的影響。但他們經常缺乏的是政策所依據的證據。

7. 遊戲的長期影響研究

   ‘The type of play we are interested in is child-initiated, spontaneous and unpredictable – but, as soon as you ask a five-year-old “to play”, then you as the researcher have intervened,’ explains Dr Sara Baker. ‘And we want to know what the long-term impact of play is. It’s a real challenge.’

   「我們感興趣的遊戲類型是由兒童發起的、自發的和不可預測的—但是，一旦你要求一個五歲的孩子去『玩』，那麼你作為研究者就已經干預了，」莎拉．貝克博士解釋說。「而且我們想知道遊戲的長期影響是什麼。這是一個真正的挑戰。」

8. 數據缺乏

   Dr Jenny Gibson agrees, pointing out that although some of the steps in the puzzle of how and why play is important have been looked at, there is very little data on the impact it has on the child’s later life.

   珍妮．吉布森博士對此表示同意，他指出，儘管已經研究了遊戲如何以及其為什麼重要的難題中的一些步驟，但是關於遊戲對兒童以後生活的影響的數據非常少。

9. 遊戲研究機構

   Now, thanks to the university’s new Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), Whitebread, Baker, Gibson and a team of researchers hope to provide evidence on the role played by play in how a child develops.

   現在，由於該大學新成立的教育、發展和學習中的遊戲研究中心 (PEDAL)，惠特布雷德、貝克、吉布森和一個研究小組希望提供關於遊戲在兒童如何發展中所扮演角色的證據。

10. 遊戲有助思維發展

    ‘A strong possibility is that play supports the early development of children’s self-control,’ explains Baker. ‘This is our ability to develop awareness of our own thinking progresses – it influences how effectively we go about undertaking challenging activities.’

    貝克解釋說：「一種強烈的可能性是，遊戲支持兒童自我控制的早期發展。這是我們發展對自己思維進展的認識的能力—它影響到我們如何有效地去進行具有挑戰性的活動。」

11. 遊戲培養解決問題能力

    In a study carried out by Baker with toddlers and young pre-schoolers, she found that children with greater self-control solved problems more quickly when exploring an unfamiliar set-up requiring scientific reasoning. ‘This sort of evidence makes up think that giving children the chance to play will make them more successful problem-solvers in the long run.’

    在貝克對幼兒和學齡前兒童進行的一項研究中，她發現，在探索一個需要科學推理的陌生環境時，具有較強自制力的兒童能更快地解決問題。「這類證據使人認為，從長遠來看，給孩子們遊戲的機會會使他們更成功地解決問題。」

12. 遊戲之教育實踐

    If playful experiences do facilitate this aspect of development, say the researchers, it could be extremely significant for educational practices, because the ability to self-regulate has been shown to be a key predictor of academic performance.

    研究人員說，如果遊戲經歷確實促進了這方面的發展，這對教育實踐來說可能是極其重要的，因為自我調節的能力已被證明是學習成績的一個關鍵預測因素。

13. 遊戲與兒童福祉

    Gibson adds: ‘Playful behavior is also an important indicator of healthy social and emotional development. In my previous research, I investigated how observing children at play can give us important clues about their well-being and can even be useful in the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.’

    吉布森補充說：「遊戲行為也是健康社會和情感發展的一個重要指標。在我之前的研究中，我調查了觀察兒童在遊戲中的表現可以為我們提供有關他們幸福的重要線索，甚至可以在診斷自閉症等神經發育障礙方面發揮作用。」

14. 遊戲與寫作訓練

    Whitebread’s recent research has involved developing a play-based approach to supporting children’s writing. ‘Many primary school children find writing difficult, but we showed in a previous study that a playful stimulus was far more effective than an instructional one.’ Children wrote longer and better-structured stories when they first played with dolls representing characters in the story. In the latest study, children first created their story with Lego*, with similar results. ‘Many teachers commented that they had always previously had children saying they didn’t know what to write about. With the Lego building, however, not a single child said this through the whole year of the project.’

    惠特布雷德最近的研究涉及開發一種基於遊戲的方法來協助兒童的寫作。「許多小學生發現寫作很困難，但我們在以前的研究中顯示，遊戲性的刺激比教學性的刺激有效得多。」當孩子們首先跟代表故事中人物的玩偶玩耍時，他們寫的故事更長、結構更好。在最新的研究中，孩子們首先用樂高*創造他們的故事，也有類似的結果。許多教師評論說，他們以前總是有孩子說他們不知道該寫些什麼。然而，透過搭建樂高，在整個計畫的一年中，沒有一個孩子這樣說。

15. 遊戲研究的演變

    Whitebread, who directs PEDAL, trained as a primary school teacher in the early 1970s, when, as he describes, ‘the teaching of young children was largely a quiet backwater, untroubled by any serious intellectual debate or controversy.’ Now, the landscape is very different, with hotly debated topics such as school starting age.

    惠特布雷德是 PEDAL 的負責人，他在 20 世紀 70 年代初接受了小學教師培訓，正如他所描述的那樣，當時「幼兒教學在很大程度上是一潭安靜的死水，沒有任何嚴肅需要智力的辯論或爭論的困擾。」現在，情況已經大不相同，有了諸如入學年齡這樣的激烈爭論。

16. 遊戲優點不容忽視

    ‘Somehow the importance of play has been lost in recent decades. It’s regarded as something trivial, or even as something negative that contrasts with “work”. Let’s not lose sight of its benefits, and the fundamental contributions it makes to human achievements in the arts, sciences and technology. Let’s make sure children have a rich diet of play experiences.’

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    * Lego: coloured plastic building blocks and other pieces that can be joined together

    「近幾十年來，遊戲的重要性不知不覺中已經消失了。它被認為是微不足道的東西，甚至是與『工作』形成對比的負面東西。我們不要忽視它的好處，以及它對人類在藝術、科學和技術方面的成就的基本貢獻。讓我們確保兒童有豐富的遊戲經驗。」

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    * 樂高：彩色塑料積木和其他可以連接在一起的部件