The objectives of the research were to investigate: 1) the students™ achievement in writing narrative text taught by using task-based learning higher than those taught by direct instruction, 2) the students™ achievement in writing narrative text with high linguistic competence is higher than those with low linguistic competence, 3) there is interaction between teaching methods and linguistic competence on students™ achievement in writing narrative text. It was an experimental research with the population of students at State Senior High School (SMAN) 2 Kisaran 2012/2013 academic year. The sample was selected by applying multistage cluster random sampling. The data collected were analyzed by applying two-way analysis of variance (2x2 ANOVA). The findings indicated that: 1) the students™ achievement in writing narrative text taught by using task-based learning is higher using direct instruction (80 > 67), 2) the students™ achievement in writing narrative text with high linguistic competence is higher than students with low linguistic competence, (80 > 65), 3) there is interaction between teaching methods and linguistic competence on students™ achievement in writing narrative text (sig. = 0.00 < 0.05). Based on the findings, it is suggested that task-based learning method should be applied in English teaching to develop the students™ writing achievement. Key words: writing; task-based learning; direct instruction; linguistic competence.
