The flexible language learning system we have devised at our university combines different elements: individual work on a virtual learning environment, pair-work and counseling sessions. The implementation of the system involves a new conception of the different "actors" roles. Teachers become tutors or counselors with new specific pedagogical goals, and learners have a new role to play too. From the creation of the system five years ago, our research has studied a cohort of 610 students. The article focuses on the last two cohorts of students, for whom two important changes in the guidance elements present in the system were introduced. It discusses students' perceptions of the roles played by the different actors in the system, as compared with traditional language teaching/learning situations. Possible implications for future cohorts of students at our university, as well as for other students working in learning systems of the same kind, are drawn. (Contains 3 tables and 4 notes.)