1. A method, comprising: obtaining a first dictionary and a training data set associated with a speech recognition system; computing one or more support parameters from the training data set; transforming the first dictionary into a second dictionary, wherein the second dictionary is a function of one or more phonetic labels of the first dictionary; using the one or more support parameters to select one or more samples from the second dictionary to create a set of one or more exemplar-based class identification features for a pattern recognition task; and using the set of one or more exemplar-based class identification features to perform a pattern recognition task, said step comprising defining a sensitivity matrix to contain one or more exemplars from the training data set; wherein the steps are carried out by a computer device.