A study examined the effects of the level of knowledge of a second language (linguistic factor) and of the level of familiarity of texts based on cultural scripts (cultural factor) on comprehension. Subjects, 111 young adults whose average age was 23 years, were divided into 3 groups according to their different levels of linguistic knowledge. Two of the groups (an intermediate and a superior group) were made up of subjects with English as a mother tongue who were attending courses in French as a second language. A third group consisted of subjects with French as a mother tongue and served as a control group. Subjects made delayed recognition judgments after reading a familiar and an unfamiliar text (both in French) of equal difficulty. Results indicated that, no matter whether the information was explicit, implicit, or incongruent elaboration, or whether the text was familiar or unfamiliar, the control group and the experimental group comprising subjects of superior linguistic ability exhibited no differences in the recognition tests. Results also indicated that members of the intermediate group (possessing limited linguistic knowledge of the target language) were at a disadvantage in memorizing explicit information, recognizing implicit information, and correctly judging incongruent elaborations. (Three tables of data are included.) (RS)