It is documented that in recent decades what began to be used as a discursive marker in the speeches of native French speakers. However, this use is not mentioned either in the dictionary or in grammar methods. Despite the fruitful work, both qualitative and quantitative, on his function, syntactic and discursive in the speech of native French speakers, his presence in the speeches of non-native speakers does not yet attract much attention. The purpose of this article is therefore to compare the use of the discursive marker what in the, non-native speakers’ speeches with those of native speakers. We focus on the various contexts under which it appears, as well as how social factors influence, his employment. In conclusion, it can be seen that non-native speakers use what is much less frequently than native speakers. However, they employ it in different contexts while taking into account that contexts are more complex and varied among native speakers. As regards extralinguistic factors, men use much more than women. The duration, residence and employment status also seem to be significant for her employment in our study.