Based upon my own teaching experience, most of the language learning tasks fall on the flexibility continnum point 3, which indicates that the learning system is basically restricted, with a limited set of choices though.
The reason for my putting it this way is mainly due to the following two points:
1. it's basically restricted because on the whole, students are supposed to perform fixed tasks with low flexibility in the design and outcomes. As regards the classroom activity, students are not allowed to have free choices. For example, in the multi-media classroom where modern means of instructional technology are at hand, the common practice during class hours for the instructor is ironically to operate the machine like a tachnician. Specific needs for different students at different levels won't be taken into consideration. In this sense, we can say it's just sort of conversion of existing print-based materials to Web format without catering to varied target language learners' special needs;
2. fortunately, due to the improvement of teaching and learning methodology, our students are sometimes given choices about their coures to be taken based on their 1 week class attending as an auditor at the beginning of a new semester; besides, they are allowed to use the multi-functional language lab within the allocated period of time (after class), during which they can get free access to movies, recordings and some live materials on line, which may help them to meet specific needs.
Personally, I don't think those so called "liberated" or "free" tasks can be easily incorporated into our teaching because of the lack of both necessary "hardwares" and "softwares". By saying this I mean that on the one hand, we can not afford to be equipped with all those modern means of instruction that will be necessitated; on the other hand, we instructors have not been well trained to adopt practice that way as idealized. There is still a long way to go I think before we can truely liberate the language learning tasks.
