Modern languages teacher Monica Hyde knew that music helped her pupils to learn French, but was frustrated that there weren't enough good songs around. So she decided to write her own, helped by the fact that her husband, John, is a professional composer.

Now she has decided to share her musical learning activities with other teachers and parents by producing them as a CD and software package, designed to teach primary school children foreign languages through song.

She said: “I found songs really useful for teaching but there weren’t enough good songs around. Existing resources might have a couple of songs tagged on at the end, as an afterthought. We wanted to make the songs the focus. The melody, rhythm and repetition all work together, and they become a really powerful learning tool.”

John's commissions have included music for children’s television, notably the soundtrack for Nellie the Elephant (starring Lulu as Nellie) and the theme to Henry’s Cat. So Mrs Hyde wrote the words for her CD and he set them to music. To keep children engaged, he has used different musical styles, including jazz, folk and rap. He said: “These songs were specifically written not to be childish.”

Sung by children who are native speakers, the songs are all available on audio CD. The Hydes have also collaborated with Capital Multimedia to produce colourful animated versions for use on interactive whiteboards in the classroom or on computers at home.

The French teaching materials are called Zim Zam Zoum, and they have recently begun producing a Spanish version, ¡Vale Venga Vamos!

The cartoons feature Lucy, a ten-year-old English girl, along with a group of friends and pets, and they are full of humorous touches introduced by designer and animator Laurent Mouflier, whose own French background helped him to make the lip-synch accurate.

It is possible either to turn off the voices, to allow children to do a karaoke version once they know the words, or to turn off the music to focus on pronunciation. Although fun, the resources are also serious, introducing essential grammar and vocabulary in a careful, structured way.

“What’s been encouraging is that the response has been so good from all kinds of different schools and teachers working with a wide range of different pupils,” said Mr Hyde, adding that the materials have gone down well with boys, who sometimes prove harder to engage in language learning.

Although intended mainly for children aged between six and 12, feedback suggests that younger and older children have also enjoyed using them. Some pupils have even become language teachers themselves: “We have found that children were singing songs in the playground, and to their little siblings,” said Mrs Hyde.

The resources are also being used in special schools, where their approach has proved a success with autistic children: “Perhaps because they often respond well to structures and frameworks”.

Many primary school teachers now teach languages but are not specialists and have had minimal training, so Mrs Hyde has designed the materials to make it as easy as possible for teachers — and parents — to become confident language teachers.

One version of the software, for Promethean-enabled interactive whiteboards, includes 24 ‘flip charts’ containing a range of interactive activities, again based on Mrs Hyde’s experience, combined with best practice.

Mrs Hyde, who lives in Berrick Salome, near Wallingford, is now head of French at The Manor Preparatory School, Abingdon, and she ‘road-tested’ all the materials on her pupils.

“Children are very stern critics — and good at noticing inconsistencies,” she said.

The Hydes are pleased with the immediate success of Taught By Song, and the stream of positive feedback, which can be found on their website, including from local authority teaching consultant Simon Cowton, who has bought site licences for all the schools for which he is responsible in North Yorkshire.

They are planning to produce further modules, and if they can find a suitable business partner with experience of global distribution of teaching materials, they would like to produce a version for children all over the world who are learning English as a foreign language.

For many years the UK has lagged behind most other countries in Europe in the teaching of other languages, and many — perhaps most — British adults have never known the intellectual challenge or practical usefulness of speaking a language other than their native tongue.

The advent of motivating and confidence-building teaching materials for young people could mean a more multilingual society in future.

In the words of Zim Zam Zoum’s title song: ‘Apprenons le Français — c’est cool!’