A method has been developed for the determination of tellurium(Te) in soil by hydride generation(HG) atomic fluorescence spectrometry(AFS) based on dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) plasma as low-temperature atomizer. The samples were dissolved by aqua regior acid without matrix separation. The characteristics of the DBD atomizer and the effects of different experimental parameters, such as discharge power, flow rates of discharge gas and AFS carrier gas, lamp current, negative high voltage, observation height, KBH4 concentration and acid medium on the determination were studied and the analytical performances of the present method were evaluated. The detection limit of Te was 0.08 μg/L. The linear range was from 0.5 to 80 μg/L. Recoveries of spiked sample was from 90% to 103 %. The accuracy of this method was verified by the determination of Te in the reference materials. The results agreed well with the reference values.