This paper is based on a longitudinal study of the development of questions in the spontaneous speech of two anglophone boys learning French by attending French language schools. The development of form-meaning relations in information questions in the children's French L2 speech was examined and comparisons were made with the same form-meaning development in the speech of children learning their first language. In addition, the use of word order inversion in questions in the learners' speech was compared to the use of inversion by the adult native speaker who interacted with them in the tape recorded play sessions on which the study is based. The results show clearly the necessity for examining L2 learners' speech in context and for comparing L2 learners' speech with that of native speakers. (Author)