A method for recognizing a spoken word in the presence of interfering speech, such as a system-generated voice prompt, begins by echo cancelling the voice prompt and any detected speech signal to produce a residual signal. Portions of the residual signal that have been most recently echo-cancelled are then continuously stored in a buffer. The energy in the residual signal is also continuously processed to determine onset of the spoken word. Upon detection of word onset, the portion of the residual signal then currently in the buffer is retained, the voice prompt is terminated, and the recognizer begins realtime recognition of subsequent portions of the residual signal. Upon detection of word completion, the method retrieves the portion of the residual signal that was retained in the buffer upon detection of word onset and performs recognition of that portion. The recognized portions of the word are then reconstructed to determine the spoken word.