Line by Line: Enhancing Oral Reading Fluency in Second Graders Through Syntactic Formatting of Biblical Texts

This study examined whether visual syntactic formatting of Biblical Hebrew, by segmenting verses according to cantillation marks (diacritical signs encoding syntactic and prosodic boundaries in Biblical texts), supports oral reading fluency among 2nd- grade students in Israeli state-religious elementary schools. Two hundred and forty-eight students read the same biblical passage in both a conventional layout and a syntactically formatted version. Readings were scored for rate, accuracy, and prosody. At the first exposure no significant differences were found between the two versions. At the second exposure students who read the formatted text demonstrated faster reading, shorter duration, and more appropriate prosody, while accuracy did not differ between versions. The findings suggest that making syntactic structure visually salient, even without explicit instruction, can enhance fluency by improving rate and prosody when children encounter complex and unpunctuated texts. Integrating such formatting into early Bible instruction may therefore provide a practical scaffold that preserves authenticity while supporting fluent, expressive reading.