There exists a continuing debate in the field of foreign language teaching on the relative viability of implicit vs. explicit approaches in the classroom. While content-based methods typically lead to more advanced communicative abilities, certain language elements and structures benefit most from explicit instruction. I argue that in the case of heritage language learners, their specific needs and linguistic gaps call for the integration of an inductive explicit instruction methodology. Research shows that heritage language speakers differ from second language learners in several aspects: Heritage language learners display fluency in basic conversational contexts, but have difficulties with elements of formal and high register language variants as well as literacy skills. I propose a novel approach to heritage language instruction that takes advantage of the existing knowledge and linguistic intuition of learners to recognize language patterns and analytically discover the underlying principles. By focusing on specific areas that raise difficulties for Persian heritage speakers, I show that the approach successfully integrates leading edge linguistic insight in an interactive classroom.