How does linguistic 'input' provided by learning materials transform into 'intake' for the learner?

In a classroom activity, learners are asked to find weather reports from a newspaper, analyze the weather conditions of major cities for the week, and work in groups to present their analysis to the class. What strategy of language learning does this task primarily involve?

Jeeva, while learning a new grammatical structure (e.g., past continuous: was/were + v + ing), is able to actively connect it with what he has already mastered (e.g., present continuous: is/are/am + v + ing). What is this learning strategy known as?