问候是重要的言语行为之一，对学习汉语的外国学生来说，恰当得体地理解和使用问候语，不仅表现了他们的汉语学习水平，也为他们与中国人交流沟通打开了友善之窗。在跨文化交际中常会出现这样或那样的失败，很多跨文化交际的失败可归因于语用失误。Jenny Thomas（1983）指出语用失误是说话不合时宜的失误，或者说话方式不妥，表达不合习惯等导致交际不能取得预期效果的失误。在教学中我们发现外国学生在问候语的使用上存在语用失误问题。导致外国学生问候语语用失误的原因是多方面的，首先是对问候语研究的不足，其次是教学中的问题，主要表现在教材编写中。本文按照使用形式和话题对问候语进行了分类，在此基础上，探讨了问候语独有的两个特点，一是使用称呼的广泛性，二是话题的突出性，并且从社会因素、个人因素、语义因素、语用限制因素等四个方面分析了问候语使用的限制条件。本文对对外汉语教材中问候语的编写情况做了调查分析，从课文内容、注释和练习三个方面对以后的教材编写提出了改进意见。对外国学生问候语使用情况做了问卷调查和访谈调查，调查结果显示学生存在的问题和教材中的问题有很大一致性，证实语言语用失误和社交语用失误在问候语使用上都存在，具体分析了外国学生在“你好”上的语用失误的原因，对如何提高学生在问候语上的语用能力提出了建议。

Greeting is one of the most important speech acts. For the foreign students, the proper understanding and appropriate use of greetings is the performance of students learning Chinese, and it helps them to get better communication with Chinese people.Various misunderstandings occur here and there in cross-cultural communication. And studies show that pragmatic failure is the basic source for most of those misunderstandings. According to Jenny Thomas (1983), pragmatic failure occurs because of improper expressions or unacceptable ways of speaking in a particular situation so that speaker cannot accomplish his/her purposes. Pragmatic failure in greetings also occurs among the foreign students learning ChineseThe present study gives the new definition and classification of the Chinese greetings. It also discusses the characteristics and the usage condition of the Chinese greeting. Based on the survey, it analyses the advantage and disadvantage of Chinese textbooks covering the level from primary to advanced in the writing of Chinese greeting and gives the suggestions from three aspects--context, note and exercise-- that how to improve language teaching. The survey of how foreign student using Chinese greeting proved that the pragmlinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure both exist in foreign students using Chinese greeting. It discussed the reason why foreign student have pragmatic failure in “你好(Hello)”, and gives the suggestion on teaching approach.