This type of acoustic guitar can be played both acoustically or connected via a guitar lead to an amplifier. Most electro acoustics feature a cutaway body design to enable the player to fret the instrument at the bottom of the neck, thus providing a greater range of sound.
Electro acoustics are either classed as passive - where the pickup is straight to a jack socket in the body of the amp and then by a lead to an amp - or an active guitar which will have an electronic tone shaping module fitted. These days a lot even have a tuner built in to the module - now that's progress!