Technology has played an irreplaceable role in improving the quality of education. In the field of
language teaching, the use of current technologies seems necessary. Augmented reality (AR) and
virtual reality (VR) are among the latest technologies serving education. In the field of language
teaching, AR and VR have not been studied and exploited properly, and the number of studies
intended to evaluate the effectiveness of these tools in teaching different language skills is
partially unsatisfactory. In this study, while examining VR and AR’s effect on learning and
recalling English vocabulary, the relationship between these platforms and participants’ intrinsic
motivation is also investigated. A sample of 48 Iranian male students from a senior high school
in East Azerbaijan was selected to this end. They were assigned to three groups, including two
experimental groups and one control group. Each experimental group was instructed based on
the specific content designed and developed by the researcher, while the control group was
instructed based on the traditional instructions. After eight treatment sessions, two post-tests, one
in multiple-choice formats, the other in fill-in-blank format was administered to assess the
participants’ receptive and productive vocabulary recall. The one-way analysis of variance
techniques mentioned above to analyze the data. Correlation and chi-square were used to analyze
the data coming from the Intrinsic Motivation (IM) questionnaire. The results indicated that the
differences among the effects of the above-mentioned techniques are statistically significant on
receptive vocabulary recall. However, in the productive recall, VR was not much effective at
least toward AR. On the other hand, the questionnaire results indicated that AR- and VR-assisted
learning inspired the participants’ intrinsic motivation and intention to participate in the learning
process. These findings can have implications for teachers, curriculum designers, and ma