Does Orthography Affect L2 Tone Production and Perception?

Many studies have investigated the production and perception of second language learners. However, very few of them have discussed the effect of orthography. Although Mandarin and Cantonese share the same orthographic system, the phonological systems of the two languages are quite different. This preliminary study investigates the production and perception of Mandarin tones by Cantonese learners, and compares their error patterns in two conditions: when the subjects were presented with 1) stimuli written in Mandarin Pinyin (a transparent orthography), 2) stimuli written in Chinese characters (an opaque orthography). The result shows that orthography has different effects in tone production and perception: the Pinyin system facilitated tone production only, while the subjects performed significantly better with Chinese characters in perception. Possible accounts for the observed differences are discussed.