A case study addressed (1) the relationship between language ability and the use of top-level organizational strategies that focus on the macrostructure of written text, and (2) the comparative use of these strategies when reading expository texts in native language (L1) and second language (L2). Subjects were five Hispanic English as a second language (ESL) students in an urban bilingual community college. In each of two individual testing sessions, students read silently an expository text, and were asked first to write down and then to dictate into a tape recorder all they could remember without referring to the text. Written and oral recall protocols were produced in Spanish after the Spanish text and in English after the English text. The second session concluded with an open-ended interview that produced a profile of each student's perceptions and memories of their own Spanish and English reading processes. Results showed L2 reading ability did not improve as a function of increased ability in the second language. The students who lacked an efficient approach to written text in L1 exhibited less sensitivity to discourse constraints when reading in L2 in spite of acquired language ability. (HOD)