Dialects

[spaceoperadiva]

The Girl-unit's spelling book insists that el and al are pronounced the same. We're talking about things like the ending combos of letters on final and fuel, to use two actual examples from her lesson. I checked Howjsay and they don't sound at all alike there. So I'm wondering, where in the English speaking world do final and fuel sound alike?

Are final and fuel's al and el sound the same for any of you?