This study is an examination of the relationship between phonological short-time working memory（PWM），executive working memory（EWM），phonetic coding ability（PCA），rote memory（RM）and listening proficiency of second language in both elementary and advanced adult L2 learners（East Asia students who use Chinese as second language，N=50）. The statistical results of the experiment showed that：First，compared with the lower level of L2 Chinese learners，the learners with higher Chinese listening level also have higher scores in EWM and PCA；Second，there was a significant positive correlation between EWM，PCA and RM. Third，there was no correlation between PWM，PCA and RM. Combining the theoretical and empirical results，we hypothesized that EWM as measured by operation-span task may replace PCA measured in MLAT and become an important predictor of Chinese listening level.