SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM AND METHOD

A speech recognition system having multiple recognition vocabularies, and a method of selecting an optimal working vocabulary used by the system are disclosed. Each vocabulary is particulary suited for recognizing speech in a particular language, or with a particular accent or dialect. The system prompts a speaker for an initial spoken response; receives the initial spoken response; compares the response to each of a set of possible responses in an initial speech recognition vocabulary to determine a response best matched in the initial vocabulary. A working speech recognition vocabulary is selected from a plurality of speech recognition vocabularies, based on the best matched response.