ИСТИНА

Linguistic diversity was always a usual phenomenon in Kazakhstan due to complex ethnolinguistic situations occurred in the location during the Soviet period. Demographically and communicatively unequal languages of ethnic groups create the unique ethnolinguistic landscape of the state and reflect the multi‐faceted history of different groups who migrated to Kazakhstan over the course of history. In the modern period in Kazakhstan, multilingualism becomes the trend with the Kazakh as the only official language, Russian widely used as a language of interethnic communication, and English recently gaining growing popularity in the country. While the proficiency in these three languages (see Cultural project 'Trinity of Language' 2007) is considered to be as integral component of personal and professional development of a person and becomes one of the priorities of the state multilingual education policy (i.e. Roadmap for the Development of Trilingual Education for 2015‐2020, etc.), among Kazakhstani people there still are some concerns towards the role of English along with Kazakh and Russian in the development of linguistic balance in Kazakhstan. In this paper the survey questionnaire and a set of semi‐structured interviews with Kazakhstani citizens from different types of social groups were conducted to identify a real usage of Kazakh, Russian, and English in a variety of settings, as well as challenges and prospects associated with their usage. The tension between the necessity to find most progressive and optimal solutions to succeeding in contemporary world community and the desire to maintain and develop the state language in Kazakhstani context is of central importance in understanding current language policy in Kazakhstan.