Model parameters in HMM based speech recognition systems are normally estimated using Maximum Likelihood Estimation(MLE). The MLE method is based mainly on the principle of statistical data fitting in terms of increasing the HMM likelihood. The optimality of this training criterion is conditioned on the availability of infinite amount of training data and the correct choice of model. However, in practice, neither of these conditions is satisfied. In this paper, we propose a training algorithm, MCE(Minimum Classification Error), to improve the performance of a speech recognizer detecting mispronunciation of a foreign language. During the conventional MLE(Maximum Likelihood Estimation) training, the model parameters are adjusted to increase the likelihood of the word strings corresponding to the training utterances without taking account of the probability of other possible word strings. In contrast to MLE, the MCE training scheme takes account of possible competing word hypotheses and tries to reduce the probability of incorrect hypotheses. The discriminant training method using MCE shows better recognition results than the MLE method does.