BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Language is a key barrier to communication between migrant workers and urban residents, according to a report on the language situation of migrant workers made by state language work commission.

In China, Mandarin Chinese, or Putonghua, is the common spoken language. But in rural areas, local dialects dominate communication among people.

Only 45.1 percent of rural residents could speak Mandarin, compared to 66 percent of urban residents, the report said.

Being able to speak only local dialects made migrant workers reluctant to talk with other people not speaking their dialects, the report said.

When faced with problems, only 5.8 percent of migrant workers sought help from urban residents but the majority of them turned to town fellows, for fear of being looked down upon.

Some of the migrant workers said frankly they are unwilling to open their mouth to speak because they worry about their poor Mandarin will be despised by urban residents.

Due to the language barrier, many migrant workers choose to work in close environments with few contacts with other people. Some of them even have to ask others to help them to express their ideas, the report said.

Local governments and employers should offer Mandarin courses to migrant workers to help them better adapt to urban life, Ministry of Education language administration official Li Yuming was quoted as saying.

Official statistics show in China there are about 200 million migrant workers.

Chinese dialects share the same written language, but pronunciation of the same words may vary greatly in different places, especially between northern and southern China.