10. A system of using a speech focus to allocate speech processing resources, the system having a plurality of speech-enabled applications that share speech processing resources of the speech processing system, the plurality of speech-enabled applications gaining access to the speech processing resources only after obtaining the speech focus, the system comprising: at least one processor configured to perform the following steps: establishing a waiting queue adapted to order in priority requests from any of the plurality of speech-enabled applications waiting to obtain the speech focus; establishing a default focus receiver to override at least some default speech behavior of the speech processing system; placing the default focus receiver in the waiting queue at a priority level above the default speech behavior, such that when none of the plurality of speech-enabled applications are requesting the speech focus the default focus receiver obtains the speech focus; detecting a speech processing event occurrence requiring an allocation of at least a portion of the shared speech processing resources; if the waiting queue does not include requests from any of the plurality of speech-enabled applications, determining whether the default focus receiver comprises an event handler having override behavior for occurrence of the speech processing event; performing at least one speech processing action in accordance with machine-readable instructions of the event handler if the event handler is determined to have override behavior for occurrence of the speech processing event occurrence; and performing at least one speech processing action for generating a speech-based system output in accordance with machine-readable instructions defining default speech behavior if the event handler is determined not to have override behavior for occurrence of the speech processing event.
12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the default focus receiver is a sequence of instructions that operate within the system as a thread of execution.