The first Shanghai dialect book for elementary school students will be on the market by the end of next month, and is expected to serve as guidance to teachers and parents when teaching the tongue to children.

Compiled by Shanghai dialect expert Qian Nairong, the book titled "Pupils Learn to Speak Shanghai Dialect" includes 20 lessons that make use of local folk tales in Shanghai pinyin and characters.

"It's easier for kids to learn before the age of 11," he told the Global Times Thursday. "The more that learning is made fun for kids, the more they will want to learn and practice what they've learned."

A Shanghai linguist who has studied the dialect for nearly 50 years, the director of the research center of linguistics at Shanghai University has compiled more than 500 books on the subject, including the first Shanghai dialect dictionary and a bilingual book for foreigners wanting to learn the tongue.

Since standardized Putonghua was strongly encouraged in classrooms over the dialect in 1992, only 60 percent of Shanghai kids understand the dialect today, said a Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences report released this year.

Though the local education bureau plans to build a museum dedicated to the local dialect, Qian said Thursday that the effort will be lost in vain, if no one is around to understand the tongue in the future.