ИСТИНА

Nowadays in Kazakhstan multilingualism becomes the trend with the English language gaining growing popularity alongside the two existing languages (i.e. Kazakh as the only official language and Russian widely used as a language of interethnic communication). While English is regarded as a condition for successful integration into the global economy and becomes one of the priorities of the state policy, there are some concerns towards the role of English in the development of linguistic balance in Kazakhstan. The purpose of this paper is to report the use of the English as a lingua franca in modern Kazakhstani business community based on survey research, which was conducted in form of paper-based and online survey questionnaires and a set of semi-structured interviews with 375 business professionals in international and national organizations of Astana, Atyrau and Almaty cities about the use of English in a variety of business settings, and the problems associated with its usage. Keywords: English as a business lingua franca, BELF, Business discourse, Workplace, Business communication.