A study compared the types of information included in English narratives written by monolingual American students, English narratives by bilingual Mexican students, and Spanish narratives by monolingual Mexican students, and possible differences by grade level. Subjects were in six groups: monolingual (English-speaking) American; bilingual Mexican; and monolingual (Spanish-speaking) Mexican, in fourth and ninth grades. Data were drawn from written narratives elicited with a silent animated film of an animal fable, a total of 10 stories in each of the 6 analysis groups. Results indicate that although general narrative structure did not differ for Mexicans and Americans, Mexicans provided more information about emotional states and personal traits. With respect to developmental differences, the younger writers tended to include fewer physical and action details, provide fewer causal links between actions and states, and provide significantly less information about characters' emotional states and physical and personal traits. Bilinguals also showed a developmental lag in the second language with respect to inclusion of information about setting and action details, and in proportion of propositions allocated to different parts of the story. No evidence of first-to-second-language transfer appeared. Contains 29 references. (MSE)