Chunking, the process of breaking texts into meaningful units, is a fundamental skill in interpreting. This study investigates the potential benefits of a computer-assisted chunking method, visual-syntactic text formatting (VSTF) to improve translators' performance. In the study, three passages with similar readability were randomly presented to participants either in VSTF, manually chunked, or block form for sight translation. The findings indicate that: 1) Participants' final scores for sight translation in VSTF were significantly higher than those in the block mode, but similar to those in the manually chunked mode, while no statistically significant differences were found in the overall translation duration across the three modes; 2) training in sight translation in general had a positive effect on the translation performance of participants, but the effect was significant only in the block mode; 3) second language (L2) proficiency, as measured by the Elicited Imitation Task (EIT), exhibited a positive correlation with translation performance, particularly in the VSTF mode; 4) participants showed immediate benefits from the VSTF form, despite their initial unfamiliarity with VSTF and it being their least preferred presentation mode. The implications of these results for the application of VSTF in sight translation teaching and practice are discussed.