16. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the match/search algorithm processes the input speech through a plurality of states and is modifiable by at least one of modifying transition probabilities associated with transitions between multiple states in the match/search algorithm or modifying initial state probabilities associated with a path through multiple states in the match/search algorithm.
14. An apparatus for recognizing speech comprising: processing circuitry including a match/search algorithm for performing speech recognition in a speech recognition system having a speech dialog with a grammar of possible responses and at least one expected response, the expected response to be received in user input speech in at least one point in the speech dialog, the at least one expected response being a subset of the grammar and known to be the at least one expected response in the speech recognition system before receiving the user input speech, the at least one expected response including the most likely response or responses expected to be uttered by the user at the at least one point in the speech dialog and having a model associated therewith; the processing circuitry configured for modifying the speech recognition match/search algorithm with respect to the model that is associated with the expected response to be received as input speech from a user so that the match/search algorithm is configured to favor the expected response and boost a confidence factor associated with a hypothesis generated by the modified speech recognition match/search algorithm; the processing circuitry further being configured for processing input speech from a user using the modified match/search algorithm to generate a hypothesis and confidence factor for the input speech.