Which assessment measures oral-language proficiency in multiple languages by asking students to describe a set of images?

• A. Basic Inventory of Natural Language (BINL)
• B. Oral Proficiency Test (OPT)
• C. Language Sample Analysis
• D. Narrative Language Interview

Answer: (A)

When we want to compare how a bilingual student uses spoken language across languages, we look for a task that elicits natural speech in multiple languages. The Basic Inventory of Natural Language is designed to do just that by asking students to describe a set of pictures or scenes. This image-describing prompt prompts a range of everyday language use—vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and fluency—in each language, providing a practical snapshot of overall oral-language proficiency across languages. The other options don’t fit as well: an Oral Proficiency Test commonly targets speaking ability in a single language; Language Sample Analysis is a method for analyzing a language sample but isn’t itself a standardized, cross-language measure; and the Narrative Language Interview focuses on storytelling in one language and isn’t inherently designed for comparing proficiency across multiple languages.