Digital Pedagogy in Second Language Acquisition: Integrating Automated Evaluation and Humanistic Feedback in Italian L2

Abstract: In our contemporary society, distance learning has significantly restructured the way educators teach foreign languages and most notably the way they assess and communicate with students. As such, our paper examines how formative feedback is applies in higher education with special interest to Italian language courses. Specifically, our study compares traditional international Italian academic literature published between 2020-2025 in terms of different scholarly online assessment traditions approach. As shown, international research tends to treat feedback as a data-driven, technology-supported process and it usually focuses on Learning Management Systems (LMS). In contrast, Italian applied linguistics research, focuses its feedback predominantly as a human based rationale thus promoting dialogue, empathy, trust, and formative interaction. As a result, to address this gap in research, we propose a novice techno-humanistic model for empathetic digital education. Analytically, our framework is characterized by personalization in communication and demonstrates that the success of online assessment relies heavily on how students interpret, use, and respond to feedback. The findings confirm that a shift from solely automerization of digital channels is necessary as human dialogue in its core and essence significantly boosts self-regulation, active engagement, learner autonomy, and intercultural awareness for both L1 and L2 student language skills.