13. Apparatus for interactive speech training comprising: a reference audio specimen database in which non-speaker independent reference audio specimens are stored; a speaker independent parameter database in which speaker independent references are stored; a prompt sequencer operative to generate a sequence of prompts including said reference audio specimens to a user, prompting the user to produce a corresponding sequence of audio specimens, wherein said sequence of prompts branches in response to user performance; and a reference-to-response comparing unit for comparing at least one feature of each of the sequence of audio specimens generated by the user, to a speaker independent reference from said speaker independent parameter database, said speaker independent reference being characterized in that it is classified in a category according to at least one of age, gender and dialect categories.
13. Apparatus for interactive speech training comprising: a reference audio specimen database in which non-speaker independent reference audio specimens are stored; a speaker independent parameter database in which speaker independent references are stored; a prompt sequencer operative to generate a sequence of prompts including said reference audio specimens to a user, prompting the user to produce a corresponding sequence of audio specimens, wherein said sequence of prompts branches in response to user performance; and a reference-to-response comparing unit for comparing at least one feature of each of the sequence of audio specimens generated by the user, to a speaker independent reference from said speaker independent parameter database, said speaker independent reference being characterized in that it is classified in a category according to at least one of age, gender and dialect categories. 15. Apparatus according to claim 13 wherein the sequence of prompts is at least partly determined by a user's designation of his native language.