The goal of this paper is to describe a group of adult Mexican English learners' ideologies about different APPRAISAL patterns in English-language scientific texts. APPRAISAL is a descriptive framework of the linguistic resources used to convey feelings and attitudes (Martin & White, 2005). This topic is particularly interesting in EAP (English for Academic Purposes)/EFL (English as a Foreign Language) contexts where L1 academic language ideologies proscribe the use of APPRAISAL features in scientific prose and where such proscriptions are followed in some disciplines and national contexts. Spanish-speaking countries often exemplify this. Forty Mexican undergraduate EFL students majoring in Health Sciences read two versions of the same short paragraph with different APPRAISAL resources. They were asked to say which of the two versions corresponded to a published research article and why. Evaluation patterns in their answers were analyzed using the attitude system of the APPRAISAL framework (Martin & White, 2005). The prevalent types of attitudes were valuation and complexity. While most students preferred the more personal text, a minority chose the more impersonal one. The latter group's attitude constructs a language ideology that equates scientific rigor and technicality with impersonal prose; they also show less awareness of the relationship between APPRAISAL resources and writing for specialized audiences.