We propose a new approach to classifying a time series data into one of the autoregressive moving-average (ARMA) models. It is bases on two pattern recognition concepts for solving time series identification. The one is an extended sample autocorrelation function (ESACF). The other is a neural network-driven decision tree classifier(NNDTC) in which two pattern recognition techniques are tightly coupled : neural network and decision tree classfier. NNDTc consists of a set of nodes at which neural network-driven decision making is made whether the connecting subtrees should be pruned or not. Therefore, time series identification problem can be stated as solving a set of local decisions at nodes. The decision values of the nodes are provided by neural network functions attached to the corresponding nodes. Experimental results with a set of test data and real time series data show that the proposed approach can efficiently identify the time seires patterns with high precision compared to the previous approaches.