<p>As a faculty supervisor of graduate students, including international students, I suggest that the student share her concern with the department head of the department in which the TA is enrolled as a graduate student. She may wish to bring 2-3 other students with her. One of two scenarios is likely: 1) The TA must have been accepted into the program having met the minimum test score requirement for proficiency in English at this university. All US graduate schools require a test of English language ability and will not admit students who fall below the threshold of the minimum score that each university sets. That test score for this TA is, for some reason, not an accurate gauge of speaking ability. The student may have done unusually well in the testing environment (having studied for the test) or there may have been irregularities in the testing, enabling the student to send a false score to the US. The department head needs to know that the student lacks proficiency in English and the TA needs to be taken out of the classroom for a semester while he/she develops English language speaking skills. Department heads will do this when alerted to the problem. 2) The other scenario is that the TA speaks English well, albeit with a heavy accent. Professors who interact regularly with international students, including this TA, have no problem understanding the TA. This scenario is actually the more likely, in my experience. I teach undergraduates who have never heard anything but a Midwestern accent. They complain that they can’t understand TAs or professors from New York or Great Britain - more distant accents absolutely floor them. The solution in this case is time - if the students in this class accept that it is their job to learn to understand this TA, within two weeks they will understand the TA. The key here is the dept. head: he/she can readily determine whether scenario #1 or #2 is operative and take action or send the students on their way, as is appropriate.</p>