Investing in English as a Credential: Compensatory Capital, Identity Repair, and Constrained Investment Among Chinese Vocational College Students

ABSTRACT This study examines how English majors at a vocational college in China invest in English within a credential‐oriented educational system. Drawing on the theory of language investment and Bourdieusian concepts of capital, field, and habitus, the study analyzes interviews with 20 students. The findings reveal three interconnected dimensions: students invest in the College English Test (CET) as compensatory capital accumulation to offset the limited symbolic value of vocational diplomas; CET investment functions as identity repair following gaokao failure; and its realization is constrained by dispositional, institutional, and peer‐cultural conditions. The study proposes constrained investment to explain how learners sustain strategic investment under structural constraints. It further shows that, in this context, English is invested in not as a communicative resource but as a means of obtaining institutionally recognized credentials, particularly CET certificates.